Sam Wallach Papers
Call Number
Dates
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
The Sam Wallach Papers include materials from Sam Wallach (1909-2001) and Rose Russell (1899-1965) New York teachers who were active in the Teachers' Union in the 1940s and 1950s. Wallach was fired by the New York City Board of Education in 1951 for refusal to cooperate with various bodies investigating Communism.
Historical/Biographical Note
Born in Dolina, Poland, on July 1, 1909, Sam Wallach came to the United States with his parents when he was about 10 months old. He grew up in Brooklyn, the oldest of four children. After attending Brooklyn Technical High School, he studied at City College of the City of New York, graduating in 1929. He was a playground director in Brooklyn and then a high school teacher of economics and history. He joined the Teachers' Union and became one if its leaders, serving as President from 1945 until 1948.
In 1948, Wallach was called by the Hartley Congressional Labor Committee in its investigation of the Teachers Union. He repeatedly asserted that the Committee had no right to investigate personal or political beliefs. His statement, published in The New York Times, was defended by sixty notable thinkers and educators, including Albert Einstein.
In 1949 The New York State Legislature passed the Feinberg Law, which demanded that the Board of Education seek out subversives and Communists and bar them from teaching. From 1951 to 1956, dozens of city school teachers were dismissed and blacklisted; Sam Wallach was one of the first.
He worked in a variety of jobs after his dismissal, including creating educational filmstrips for National Teaching Aids, and then took a position at Maimonides Developmental Center advocating for mentally retarded children. He helped formulate strategy for "mainstreaming" students and for establishing residential group homes for the retarded.
In December, 1976, as he was about to retire from Maimonides, he and nine of the other teachers who had been dismissed in the 1950s, were reinstated and awarded pension benefits by the New York City Board of Education.
Sam Wallach was married for 56 years to Lottie Tanenbaum. They had two daughters, Joan Wallach Scott and Ruth Wallach Frankel. Wallach died on February 14, 2001, at the age of 91.
Arrangement
Folders are arranged alphabetically. The collection is composed of the following four series:
Missing Title
- Series I: Personal Papers
- Series II: Rose Russell Material
- Series III: Subject Files
- Series IV: Photographs
- Series V: Audiovisual Materials
Scope and Content Note
The Sam Wallach Papers include materials from Sam Wallach (1909-2001) and Rose Russell (1899-1965). The collection includes Wallach's correspondence; clippings; materials relating to Wallach's suspension, dismissal and subsequent reinstatement; his FBI surveillance file and items from his second career working with the mentally retarded. The bulk of Rose Russell's material is correspondence relating to the Teachers' Union and photographs of union events. The collection also includes audio materials (vinyl records and reel to reel tapes).
Subjects
Organizations
Genres
People
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Use Restrictions
Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by Joan Wallach Scott, the daughter of Sam Wallach, were transferred to New York University in 2001. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from the Tamiment Library.
Preferred Citation
Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date; Sam Wallach Papers; TAM 241; box number; folder number;
Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
New York, NY 10012, New York University Libraries.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Materials were donated by Joan Wallach Scott in 2001. The accession numbers associated with this collection are 2001.201, 2001.202, and NPA.2008.006.
Custodial History
Gift of Joan Wallach Scott, 2001. The Rose Russell material was entrusted to the Wallach family by Harris Russell, Rose Russell's husband, after her death in 1965.
Audiovisual Access Policies and Procedures
Access to audiovisual materials in this collection is available through digitized access copies. Researchers may view an item's original container, but the media themselves are not available for playback because of preservation concerns. Materials that have already been digitized are noted in the collection's finding aid and can be requested in our reading room. Materials not yet digitized will need to have access copies made before they can be used. To request an access copy, or if you are unsure if an item has been digitized, please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
About this Guide
Processing Information
Photographs were separated from this collection during initial processing and were established as a separate collection, the Sam Wallach Photographs (PHOTOS 251). In 2013, the photograph collection was reincorporated into the Sam Wallach Papers. Audiovisual materials were also separated from this collection during initial processing and were reincorporated into the Sam Wallach Papers as Series V in 2014.
Repository
Series I: Personal Papers, 1937-2001, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
Directly related to Sam Wallach's personal life, this series contains correspondence, notes, published and unpublished writings, and transcripts of several interviews. Legal documents, newspaper clippings and official communications relating to his suspension and dismissal from public school teaching, along with letters of support from former students, are included in the series. There are also many items concerned with his subsequent reinstatement. Of particular interest is his lengthy FBI file, obtained under the Freedom of Information/Privacy Act in 1998.
"Abolish the Regents Examinations in New York City," Sam Wallach, 1937, inclusive
Board of Education of the City of New York, 1951-1976, inclusive
Correspondence and Notes, 1967-1987, undated, inclusive
Correspondence: Harris Russell and the Wallachs, 1965-1966, inclusive
Eulogies and Written Tributes (A-H), 1962-1994, inclusive
Eulogies and Written Tributes (J-V), 1945-1994, inclusive
Feinberg Law: Opinions Concerning Constitutionality (U.S. Supreme Court), 1952, inclusive
Feinberg Law: Opinion Declaring Law Unconstitutional (Supreme Court of the State of New York), 1949, inclusive
Freedom of Information/Privacy Act: Request, 1994-1998, inclusive
Freedom of Information/Privacy Act: Response - FBI File, Samuel Wallach (I), 1952-1973, inclusive
Freedom of Information/Privacy Act: Response - FBI File, Samuel Wallach (II), 1952-1973, inclusive
Freedom of Information/Privacy Act: Response - FBI File, Samuel Wallach (III), 1952-1973, inclusive
Freedom of Information/Privacy Act: Response - FBI File, Samuel Wallach (IV), 1952-1973, inclusive
Interviews, 1986, 1996, undated, inclusive
Maimonides Develpmental Center, 1974-1976, undated, inclusive
Maimonides Developmental Center: Correspondence, 1974-1983, inclusive
Maimonides Developmental Center: Retirement, 1977-1979, inclusive
Memorial Invitation, 2001, inclusive
"More than Good Will Is Needed," Samuel Wallach and Herbert M. Chamais, 1944, inclusive
Reinstatement (I), 1972-1980, undated, inclusive
Reinstatement (II), 1972-1980, undated, inclusive
Reinstatement: Clippings, 1948-1982, inclusive
Reinstatement: Resolutions and Agreement, 1976-1977, inclusive
Suspension and Dismissal, 1948-1960, undated, inclusive
Suspension and Dismissal: Official Communication, 1952-1953, inclusive
Suspension and Dismissal: Legal Documents, 1951-1952, inclusive
Teachers' Union, 1938-1950, 1964, inclusive
Teaching, 1937-1952, undated
Series II: Rose Russell Material, 1921-1965, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
The bulk of this series is correspondence, much of it in the form of tributes to Rose Russell on celebrating the tenth and twentieth anniversaries of her association with the Teachers' Union. Tenth anniversary tributes (1954) come from union representatives, university professors, attorneys, politicians and religious leaders; correspondents include such well-known individuals as W. E. B. DuBois, Joseph P. Selly, Morris Schappes, Cedric Belfrage and Scott Nearing. In 1964, at the twentieth anniversary celebration, Russell was presented with several leather binders full of tributes. Among them are letters and telegrams from notables such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, Langston Hughes, Abraham Beame, Frederic Ewen, I. F. Stone, Irving Adler, Linus Pauling, Alexander Meiklejohn, Corliss Lamont, and a host of state senators and assemblymen, journalists, Board of Education members and staff, union members, court officers, representatives of a wide variety of organizations and personal friends. The Irish playwright Sean O'Casey corresponded with Ms. Russell for a number of years. One of his letters in the collection, a moving condolence written on November 20, 1963, after the assassination of President Kennedy, was subsequently published in The New York Times.
Bachelor of Arts Diploma, University of Michigan: Rose Russell (Gutterman), 1921, inclusive
Correspondence: Lamont, Corliss, 1954, 1960, inclusive
Correspondence: Meiklejohn, Alexander, 1953, inclusive
Correspondence: O'Casey, Sean, 1956-1964, undated
Correspondence: Pauling, Linus, 1958, inclusive
Correspondence: Various, 1953, 1964, undated
Memorial and Obituary, 1965, inclusive
Scroll of Honor Award (Teachers' Union), 1947, inclusive
Scroll of Honor Award (Teachers' Union): Presentation Frame, 1947, inclusive
Tenth Anniversary Testimonial Dinner: Correspondence, 1954, undated, inclusive
Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Rose Russell, 1964, inclusive
Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Rose Russell: Album of Tributes (Volume 1), 1963-1964, inclusive
Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Rose Russell: Album of Tributes (Volume 2), 1963-1964, inclusive
Twentieth Anniversary Tribute to Rose Russell: Presentation Album, 1964, inclusive
Series III: Subject Files, 1935-1999, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This series contains a variety of materials touching on subjects and individuals of interest to Sam Wallach with particular emphasis on the Teachers' Union and its activities. There are also many items collected by Wallach on the topic of mental retardation.
Adler, Irving and Joyce, 1993, 1999, undated, inclusive
Anti-Communism, 1941-1975, undated, inclusive
Cammer, Harold I., 1983-1993, inclusive
Clippings and Articles: Various Topics, 1945-1996, undated, inclusive
Education: General, 1952-1971, undated, inclusive
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, 1995-1998, inclusive
Jews for Racial and Economic Justice: Marshall T. Meyer Risk-Taking Award, 1996, inclusive
Katz, Blanche and Al, 1989-1993, undated
Mental Retardation (I), 1969-1979, undated
Mental Retardation (II), 1969-1979, undated, inclusive
Mental Retardation: Employment, 1964-1975, inclusive
Mental Retardation: Employment, 1977-1978, undated, inclusive
Mental Retardation: Minutes - Brooklyn Boro-Wide Council for the Mentally Retarded, 1974-1979, inclusive
Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights: Brochure, undated
The Social Frontier: Articles, 1935-1938, inclusive
Teachers' Union, 1937-1964, 1996, undated, inclusive
Teachers' Union: Award - Abraham Lederman, 1956, inclusive
Teachers' Union: Award Plaque ("To Eleanor Roosevelt..."), 1939, inclusive
Teachers' Union: Conferences, 1962-1963, inclusive
Teachers' Union: Draft Article Annotated by Sam Wallach, [1997], inclusive
Teachers' Union: Film - Dreamers and Fighters, 1949-1997, inclusive
Teachers' Union: Teacher News Issues, 1938-1959, inclusive
Teachers' Union: Teacher News Issues, 1960-1964, undated
Teachers' Union: Teaching Materials, 1940, 1955, undated, inclusive
United Federation of Teachers, 1995-1996, inclusive
"Zeal for American Democracy": Special Issue of School Life, Feb 1948, inclusive
Series IV: Photographs, circa 1940-1970, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
Approximately 225 black and white mostly 8 x 10 photographs and 13 black and white slides separated from the Sam Wallach Papers. Most of the images document the activities of Rose Russell in the Teachers Union, and its successor organization, the United Federation of Teachers. Many of them were shot by the photographer and Teacher's Union member, Mildred Grossman. Dates appear range from 1940s to the 1960s.
7x11 Prints and Smaller, undated
Miscellaneous, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Photographs, undated
Slides, undated
Series V: Audiovisual Materials, circa 1949-1958, inclusive
Scope and Content Note
This series includes 23 records and 10 reel-to-reel tapes. Many of the records are labeled recordings of Teachers Union events, most seeming to involve Rose Russell. There is also an interview of Rose Russell by Mike Wallace
