There were riots in the streets of Corinth. A railroad trestle had been destroyed with dynamite. Attempts were made to blow two bridges on the roads leading into the village. National Guard units from adjoining counties were brought in to restore order. All of this upheaval occurred during the 1910 Corinth Paper Mill Strike. [Read more…] about The 1910 Corinth Paper Mill Strike
Labor History
Local Work History Exhibit Opening In Troy
The Hart Cluett Museum’s exhibit ‘The Way We Work(ed)’ is set to open to the public on February 28th.
The exhibit was organized by The Hart Cluett Museum in collaboration with the Smithsonian as part of a pilot project to develop a unique humanities-based exhibition about local work history. [Read more…] about Local Work History Exhibit Opening In Troy
NYC Labor History Book Wins International Award
The International Labor History Association (ILHA) has announced that the book City of Workers, City of Struggle: How Labor Movements Changed New York (Columbia Univ. Press and the Museum of the City of New York, 2019), edited by Joshua B. Freeman, has won the ILHA Book of the Year Award for 2019.
City of Workers, City of Struggle chronicles New York City labor history, covering the range of colonial-era workers and slaves to current labor movements and alt-labor initiatives. [Read more…] about NYC Labor History Book Wins International Award
Adirondack World War 2 POW Labor Camps
The word Adirondack calls to mind many things — natural beauty, family playground, sporting opportunities, colorful history — but nothing so dark as prisoner-of-war host.
Yet during the last world war (let’s hope it was the last), followers of Hitler and Mussolini populated the North Country. [Read more…] about Adirondack World War 2 POW Labor Camps
Nurses Seek A Historic Union Contract at Albany Med
A nonprofit employer is not necessarily a better boss than a profit-making one.
That sad truth is reinforced by the experience of some 2,200 nurses at Albany Medical Center, who have been fighting for a contract since April 2018, when they voted for union representation.
The origins of Albany Medical Center can be traced back to the early nineteenth century. [Read more…] about Nurses Seek A Historic Union Contract at Albany Med
Decades After Closure, Brooklyn Navy Yard Sails On
A decidedly unglamorous black-hulled cargo barge plying the turbid waters off Staten Island represents the last working evidence of two centuries of New York history. McAllister Towing & Transportation Co.’s Atlantic Trader, a 300-foot container-carrying barge which entered service in 1977 appears to be the last vessel built from the ground up at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
The plodding, anonymous Atlantic Trader had many famous Navy Yard forebears, including the USS Arizona, destroyed at Pearl Harbor where the Second World War began for the United States on Dec. 7, 1941, and the USS Missouri, where the war ended 45 months later with the formal Japanese surrender on her polished teak deck in Tokyo Bay. Other warships built in Brooklyn included the USS Maine, whose 1898 destruction in Havana Harbor helped launch the Spanish-American War; the USS Ohio, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line launched in 1820 that saw action in the Mexican-American War; and eight battleships and eight aircraft carriers completed between 1911 and 1961. Ships built at the yard saw service in every major American conflict from the War of 1812 to Operation Iraqi Freedom. [Read more…] about Decades After Closure, Brooklyn Navy Yard Sails On
Women and Appalachia Coal Mine Wars
This week’s guest on The Historians Podcast is Kimberly Collins, who focuses on women involved in the 1912 Appalachian Coal Mine Wars in her native West Virginia in her historical novel Blood Creek. [Read more…] about Women and Appalachia Coal Mine Wars
The Grange, Temperance and the Knights of Labor (Podcast)
This week on The Historians Podcast, Charles Postel discusses his book Equality: An American Dilemma 1866-1896. Postel follows three major political and social movements which tried to bring about more equality in America: the Grange, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) and the Knights of Labor. [Read more…] about The Grange, Temperance and the Knights of Labor (Podcast)
Featured Collection: NYS Underwater Land Records
This collection of applications to the Commissioners of the New York State Land Office, later the Division of Land Utilization, for grants to lands under water is located at the New York State Archives. [Read more…] about Featured Collection: NYS Underwater Land Records
A New Labor History of the City of New York
The new book City of Workers, City of Struggle: How Labor Movements Changed New York (Columbia University Press, 2019), edited by Joshua B. Freeman looks at the working people have helped create and re-create the City of New York through their struggles, from the founding of New Amsterdam until today.
Starting with artisans and slaves in colonial New York and ranging all the way to twenty-first-century gig-economy workers, this book tells the story of New York’s labor history anew. [Read more…] about A New Labor History of the City of New York