Robert Dunn Photographs
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
Robert Dunn (1895-1977), a researcher and advocate for labor, began his career in 1918, in New England, as an organizer and economic researcher for the Amalgamated Textile Workers Union. Dunn traveled to the Soviet Union in 1922, as research director for the Quaker Relief Committee, and again in 1927, as part of the First Trade Union Delegation (which helped bring about the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Soviet Union in 1933). That same year, he founded the Labor Research Association (LRA), an organization the purpose of which was to collect data on labor for trade unions and publish that information, statistics, and related news. He served as its executive secretary for nearly the rest of his life--until 1975. Dunn also wrote or co-wrote a dozen books on labor and economics. The 91 images in this collection--all of which are black and white photographs and span the years 1888 to 1960--are mostly of Dunn, his family, friends, and colleagues in private, rather than organizational settings. None pertain to the organization to which he devoted most of his life—the Labor Research Association. Highlights include photographs of Dunn and others shot during his 1922/23 trip to the Soviet Union.
Biographical Note
Son of an attorney, Robert Dunn (1895-1977) was born in Pennsylvania. After graduation from Yale in 1918, he worked in New England for the Amalgamated Textile Workers Unions as an organizer and economic researcher. In 1920 Dunn helped established the New England Civil Liberties Union. A close friend of Roger Baldwin's he also served on the national American Civil Liberties Union's Executive Committee from 1923-1941. In the 1920s Dunn focussed his attention on events in the Soviet Union, traveling there in 1922 (as research director for the Quaker Relief Committee, along with Anna Louise Strong and Jessica Smith) and again in 1927 (as part of the First Trade Union Delegation, which helped bring about the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Soviet Union in 1933). In 1927, Dunn co-founded the Labor Research Association (LRA) and served as its executive secretary until 1975. Still active today, the LRA collects data on labor for trade unions and regularly publishes that information, statistics, and related news, in LRA Online, its informational website. Other organizations Dunn was associated with or worked for, include: the Civil Rights Congress and the American Fund for Public Service. In addition, Dunn wrote extensively in the field of labor economics and wrote or co-wrote 12 books, including The Labor Spy(1924), American Foreign Investments(1926), and Company Unions Today(1932). In 1925, Dunn married Stanislava Piotrovska, a graduate of Columbia Teachers College. They had one son, Roger Williams Dunn, born in 1930.
Arrangement
Folders are arranged chronologically.
The files are grouped into 1 series:
Missing Title
- Container List
Scope and Content Note
Although the collection was separated from the records of the Labor Research Association, the images (all of which are black and white photographs) are largely biographical rather than organizational–-photographs of Dunn, his family, friends, and colleagues (including Labor Research Association co-founder, Grace Hutchinson), but apparently none of Labor Research Association events. Highlights include photographs of Dunn and others shot during his 1922/23 trip to the Soviet Union (one of these may include Anna Louise Strong), and a snapshot of George Bernard Shaw in a bathing suit (ca. 1920s). The collection also includes a group of stills from two important Depression-era documentary/docudrama films produced by leftist filmmakers : The World Today(produced by Nykino, later known as Frontier Films), and Millions of Us(produced by American Labor Productions)–both in 1936.
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by Labor Research Association, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Robert Dunn Photographs; PHOTOS 033; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The Labor Research Association donated a collection of their papers to Tamiment Library between 1987 and 1988. Photographs from this donation pertaining to Labor Research Association founder Robert Dunn were separated and established as the Labor Research Association/Robert Dunn Photographs (PHOTOS 033). Additional photographs were found in the repository in 2012. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 1987.009 and 2012.051.
