CHICAGO, October 2, 2006 - The Newberry Library, a Chicago-based pre-eminent humanities research library, has acquired an outstanding archive of publications and ephemera of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as the Wobblies) from a local Chicago couple.
"More than 100 years of Chicago labor history is documented in these rare and valuable materials and we're proud to have them among our treasured new acquisitions," said Paul Saenger, curator of rare books and collection development librarian. "This collection is uniquely Chicago and is a great addition to our already strong labor union historical materials. "
Founded in Chicago in 1905, the IWW holds a special place in local and U.S. history. Its prominence in Chicago labor and free speech history is second to none. With its strong links to Chicago labor radicalism of the Haymarket era, the IWW was an important influence on the American Labor movement during the 1910s and 1920s, particularly in respect to workers' education. The IWW's printing facilities on the west and north sides of Chicago produced approximately 90 percent of the material in this collection.
Penelope and Franklin Rosemont, members of the Illinois Labor History Society, assembled this amazing collection over a 40-year period. Franklin Rosemont used the collection to write several books, including, "Joe Hill: The IWW and the Making of a Revolutionary Working Class Counterculture." Some items were purchased at Chicago-area bookstores-like Jerry Nedwick's store on South Wabash in the early 1960s-and at the IWW's Solidarity Bookshop. The great bulk of the collection, however, was simply gifts from old-time Wobblies.
"We are very pleased to have these archives housed at the Newberry Library," said Penelope Rosemont. "The Wobblies began in Chicago, and now the union's influential past will be preserved and made available to all types of readers here."
Included in the collection are books, pamphlets, constitutions, periodicals, and other literature as well as delegate credentials, posters, wall-charts, branch charters, union shop cards, and miscellaneous paraphernalia-membership applications and booklets, dues stamps, stickpins, buttons, stickers, postcards, and a pennant.
Highlights include:
· Founding Convention Minutes, clothbound copy, 1905
· IWW membership card, 1905
· IWW pamphlet on craft unionism by Eugene Debs, 1905
· Invitation to an IWW Dance, with the song, "Hallelujah, I'm a Bum" on the back, 1909
· IWW felt pennant, 1910s
· IWW wooden shoe pin, ca. 1910
· Joe Hill funeral program booklet, 1915
· Joe Hill photo postcard, 1915-1916
· IWW cartoon booklet by Ernest Riebe, 1919
· Lumberjack's Prayer, card by T-Bone Slim, 1920s
· Photo of IWW Work People's College students and faculty, 1932-1933
· Many rare editions of the "Little Red Song Book"
· Many rare foreign-language IWW publications, mostly ca. 1910-ca. 1930
· Many rare and profusely illustrated IWW magazines, mostly 1920s
The collection was acquired with the proceeds generated over the last 20 years of the sales of out-of-scope and duplicate materials and will be available for research by November 1, 2006. For further information about the contents of the collection, please call or e-mail the Reference Department at (312) 255-3506 or reference@newberry.org.
About the Newberry Library
The Newberry Library is an independent library open to the public for research and reference in the humanities. One of the largest independent research libraries in the United States, the Newberry holds an extraordinary collection of about 1.5 million books, 5 million manuscript pages, and more than 300,000 historic maps. As one of the world's leading repositories of a broad range of books and manuscripts relating to the civilizations of western Europe and the Americas, the Library acquires and preserves research collections of such materials and provides for and promotes their effective use by a diverse community of users.