Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Organizations
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Date
Creator
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Language of Materials
Abstract
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Organizations (1865-2019), an artificial collection of vertical files, was accumulated gradually over the years as staff set aside ephemera that was relevant to Tamiment Library's collecting focus but did not belong in discreet collections. This collection consists of brochures, bulletins, catalogs, flyers, clippings, leaflets, manifestoes, pamphlets, press releases, programs, and other printed ephemera created by or related to organizations connected with the labor movement, trade unionism, radical politics, feminism, civil rights, and other movements.
Historical Note
The Tamiment Library, New York University, a special collection documenting the history of United States radicalism, labor, and progressive social action, accumulated this artificial collection of printed ephemera gradually over the years through purchases, donations, standing orders with publishers, trade unions and other organizations, and through exchanges with other special library collections via the Collectors' Network, which was organized by Russell Benedict at the University of Nevada in the 1970s and promoted through his newsletter Top Secret. Tamiment Library staff added materials to this collection on a regular basis.
Arrangement
Collection is organized into 27 series; one for titles starting with numerals, and one for each letter of the alphabet. Files are arranged alphabetically by file title.
Series are arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Content Note
The Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Organizations (1865-2019) is composed of printed ephemera related to the primary collecting areas of the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives: Leftist politics and Labor history. This collection includes files created by or related to organizations that were of a part of or of interest to members of the political Left in the United States. Organizations represented are political parties, anti-war protest movements, legal associations, and student groups, and are leftist or radical in nature. Examples, including the Black Panthers, Workers' Defense League, American Labor Party, Social Democratic Federation of America, and New England Free Press, demonstrate the depth and variety of this collection. These organizations are documented by broadsides, brochures, bulletins, catalogs, clippings, flyers, leaflets, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, posters, press releases, programs, and other printed ephemera arranged alphabetically by organization.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Topics
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Because of the assembled nature of this collection, copyright status varies across the collection. Copyright is assumed to be held by the original creator of individual items in the collection; these items are expected to pass into the public domain 120 years after their creation. Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from this collection.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Organizations; PE 036; box number; folder number or item identifier; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Materials in this collection have been compiled by the Tamiment Library.
Some materials were donated by Madeline Tress in 1988 and by Sidney Gluck in 2004. There are no accession records associated with these materials.
Various materials were found in the repository in 2014 and added to this collection. The accession numbers associated with this material are 2014.021, 2014.030, 2014.036, 2014.058, 2014.065, and 2014.078.
Accession numbers also associated with this collection are NPA.2000.260, NPA.2001.034, NPA.2001.070, and NPA.2001.093.
In 2021, an accretion of materials collected by Everett Allgood, Authorities Librarian and Principal Serials Cataloger at NYU Libraries, and Shannon O'Neill, Curator for Tamiment-Wagner Collections, was added to this collection. The accession number with this accretion is 2021.019.
In 2025, materials from accession 2019.056, which is associated with Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Subjects (PE 029), were transferred to this collection.
Custodial History
The provenance of the materials is varied. Items were obtained through purchases, donations, standing orders with publishers, arrangements with labor unions and other organizations, exchanges with other libraries, and ongoing collecting by Tamiment staff.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Decisions regarding arrangement, description, and physical interventions for this collection prior to 2021 are unknown. In 2021, an accretion of fliers was physically added to the collection in Box 121 and intellectually incorporated into the collection's existing alphabetic structure.
In September 2024, an oversized Bluestockings Women's Bookstore poster was rehoused into Shared Tamiment Box 175.
In 2025, unprocessed materials from the Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives Printed Ephemera Collection on Subjects (PE 029) were transferred to this collection, sorted by organization, and placed in new acid-free folders and boxes. The files were physically arranged alphabetically by file title, housed in boxes 122-130, Shared Tamiment 183, Shared Tamiment 184, Shared Tamiment 187, Shared Tamiment 189, and Shared Tamiment 193, and new files were integrated into the collection's existing alphabetical file list.
