Tamiment Library Newspapers
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Abstract
The collection contains some 523 titles to date (September 2018). They were published by international and local labor unions in the United States and Canada, radical political parties (Anarchist, Communist, Maoist, Socialist, Trotskyist), the New Left, and by organizations representing civil rights movements (African-Americans, prisoners, etc.), peace movements, protest against the war in Vietnam (including titles published by American soldiers), activity in support of national liberation movements, student and youth activism, the counterculture, feminism and gay liberation, and other activism. While most of the titles are from the U.S., and of these about one fourth are from New York State, there are also some foreign titles, most from Western Europe, primarily Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain. The holdings continue to grow through donations and subscriptions. While the majority of the titles lack catalog records in BobCat, NYU's electronic library catalog, retrospective cataloging is taking place. An unpublished guide available in the library shows holdings information for each title.
Historical Note
The Tamiment Library's collection of newspapers from labor and activist organizations traces its origins to the library of the Rand School of Social Science, established in 1906. Located just off Union Square in New York City, the Rand School was a workers education institution supported by the Socialist Party of New York, the garment trades unions, the Workman's Circle, and the Jewish Forward Association. The Rand School taught courses in economics, economic history, U.S. history, literature, socialist theory, and labor-management relations. In the mid-1920s the Rand School established a Trade Union Institute to train people interested in careers in trade union organizing and administration. The school also sponsored a vast array of cultural programs: theatre groups, poetry readings, and a workers chorus.
The Rand School's library, which was renamed the Meyer London Memorial Library in 1926, after the Socialist Congressman from Manhattan's Lower East Side, always played an important role in the school. By the 1930s it had one of the finest collections New York City documenting the history of labor and the left. In addition to the book collections many of the unions and progressive organizations associated with the school placed copies of their newspapers, journals, newsletters, leaflets, broadsides, and ephemeral pamphlet literature with the Library. By the end of World War II the Library had a large and growing collection of both current and historical newspapers. However, by the early 1950s the school was in financial trouble and it closed in 1956. For the next seven years the Meyer London Library was maintained with a subsidy from the Tamiment Institute, the educational arm of Camp Tamiment, a socialist summer camp in Pennsylvania's Pocono mountains.
In 1963 the Library was given to New York University. Under NYU administration the Tamiment Library grew rapidly, and today it has nearly 75,000 monograph volumes, a serial collection with more than 8,500 titles, a printed ephemera collection of nearly a million items, and 15,000 linear feet of archives, including personal papers, labor union records, photographs, film, graphics, and oral histories. The newspapers are part of the Library's serial collection. The holdings continue to grow through current subscriptions and donations of historical material.
Sources:
- Swanson, Dorothy, "The Tamiment Institute/Ben Josephson Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives at New York University," Library Quarterly, 59:2 (1989), 148-161.
Arrangement
Serials in this collection are arranged alphabetically by title.
Scope and Content Note
As of September 2018, the collection contains some 523 titles published by international and local labor unions in the United States and Canada, radical political parties (Anarchist, Communist, Maoist, Socialist, Trotskyist), the New Left, and by organizations representing civil rights movements (African-Americans, prisoners, etc.), peace movements, protest against the war in Vietnam (including titles published by American soldiers), activity in support of national liberation movements, student and youth activism, the counterculture, feminism and gay liberation, and other activism. While most of the titles are from the U.S., and of these about one third are from New York State, there are also some foreign titles, most from Western Europe, primarily Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain. The holdings continue to grow through donations and subscriptions. While the majority of the titles lack catalog records in BobCat, NYU's electronic library catalog, retrospective cataloging is taking place. An unpublished guide available in the library shows holdings information for each title.
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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. The Tamiment Library is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from this collection.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Tamiment Library Boxed Newspaper Collection; PERIODICALS 001; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Newspapers in this collection have been compiled by the Tamiment Library. The accession number associated with these materials is 1950.028.
Some materials were donated by John Henle in 2016. The accession number associated with this gift is 2016.016.
Custodial History
Newspapers in this collection have been accumulated by the Tamiment Library through various donations and subscriptions.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Processing decisions made prior to 2018 have not been recorded. In 2018, approximately 1,000 serials were removed from this collection and placed in subject-based serials collection.
