Living the Legacy: The Women's Rights Movement, 1848-1998

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Logo, Living the Legacy: The Women's Rights Movement
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Furnishes secondary materials concerning women's rights efforts in the U.S. from 1848 to the present. Includes a 5,000-word history of the movement; a 7,000-word chronology of political activism; six curriculum ideas; a detailed list of activities for high school students, librarians, and teachers to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the movement; listings for 54 prominent women's history organizations, arranged alphabetically by state; basic information and/or links for 60 groups that treat contemporary women's issues; and descriptive listings for 18 "costumed history performers" who portray public figures in women's history. The site is sponsored by the National Women's History Project, "a nonprofit organization, founded in 1980, that is committed to providing education, promotional materials, and informational services to recognize and celebrate women's diverse lives and historic contributions to society."

California Labor History

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Image, Introductory graphic, California Labor History
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This interactive essay covers 300 years of labor history in California. Powered by Shockwave, the site features a map of California that depicts the locations of labor disputes from 1776 to 1992. Using the scrollbar at the top of the site, users can change the year displayed on the map. On the map itself, small dots indicate the location of a particular event important to California's labor history. Clicking on the dot reveals a chronological list of related "Labor Events." The bottom-left panel, titled "Bigger Picture," provides links to sections of a larger secondary source entitled "Contextual Information" on California labor history relevant to the year and location the user is viewing. 64 700-word essays are mainly excerpts from published books and articles.

Indiana's Storyteller: Connecting People to the Past

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Image, Brewett, Chief of the Miami, James Otto Lewis, 1827, Indiana's. . . site
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The Indiana Historical Society's main digital archive site contains more than 34,000 images, most of which are directly related to Indiana's past, grouped into almost 30 themed collections that include photographs, prints, sheet music, manuscripts, old court documents, letters, Indiana ephemera, and maps. Also collected here are images from the Jack Smith Lincoln Graphics Collection (containing photographs, lithographs, and engravings of Abraham Lincoln) and the Daniel Weinberg Lincoln Conspirators Collection (containing newspaper clippings, manuscripts, and other material pertaining to the Lincoln assassination). A sampler of the other collections: digitized images of the Indianapolis Recorder; manuscripts and images of James Whitcomb Riley; a collection of 900 postcards of scenes from Indiana from the first two decades of the 20th century; and fascinating panoramic photographs from the early part of the 20th century, showing church groups, picnics, army recruits, and conventioneers.

Labor Arts

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Lithograph, "John Henry," William Gropper, Between 1897 and 1977
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A modestly-sized exhibition of visual materials from a variety of labor-related organizations that focuses on ways in which artists and others have celebrated working people and labor unions in 20th-century America. Includes 44 photographs, 19 images of leaflets and pamphlets, 13 buttons, badges, and ribbons, 25 examples of cartoon art, eight songbook and sheet music covers, six images from murals, and nine covers from the journal Labor Defender. Covers themes of workers at work, strikes, parades, demonstrations, and the civil rights movement. Provides exhibits on original art depicting labor, the New York City "culture of solidarity," and the early struggles of the Hotel and Motel Trades Council. Materials are identified with short descriptions of up to 100 words. Offers links to 61 related sites. Useful for those studying political uses of visual culture in 20th-century America.

Kheel Center Labor Photos

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Photo, ILGWU Local 318 on strike
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The International Ladies Garment Workers Union was formed in 1900, and for close to 100 years represented the interests of hundreds of thousands of workers in the women's-clothing industry. This collection of more than 1,000 photographs documents the activities of this union, which was particularly influential in the 1920s and 1930s. It includes scenes of workers in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico: at home and in shops and participating in marches, protests, celebrations, parades, and union actions. The various immigrant groups who have been involved in the industry, such as African Americans, Jewish Americans, Italian Americans, and Puerto Ricans are well represented. While some prominent labor leaders have been identified, most workers remain unidentified. The collection also includes five photographs by famed labor photographer Lewis Hine of New York street scenes from the early 20th century. More of the Kheel Center's larger collection of 33,000 photographs will be added to this website in the future.

Hard Hat Riots: An Online History Project

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Photo, Construction Workers with American Flag, New York Times
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A well-designed and innovative approach to teaching history, this site, designed by three PhD candidates at New York University, presents multifaceted perspectives on the May 8, 1970, attacks in New York City on Vietnam War protesters by hundreds of construction workers.

Users can enter the site by selecting any of 12 photographs, nine newspaper headlines, three places in the city where rioting occurred, or 10 summaries of views on the events and their meaning by historians and journalists. Selected items link to additional resources, including a police report and interviews with a student and a construction worker. The creators challenge users to fit the riots into wider contexts and to assess variant attempts at historical understanding.

Offers about a dozen suggested activities for high school and college teachers. Though limited in scope and quantity of material, this site is of great value to those studying social class in the Vietnam War era, labor history, and media influence in American life.

Digital Resource Guide for the Labor Archives of Washington State

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Photo, Camp Ferry crew on their way to lunch, 1939, WPA, Uni. of Washington
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The Digital Resource Guide for the Labor Archives of Washington State exists for one purpose—to break down and make accessible the contents of the University of Washington's labor collections. To begin, simply scroll down or select "Topics" from the top navigation bar to view five categories within the collections. From there, make your choice, and find a summary of the collection contents alongside links.

"The I.W.W. in the Pacific Northwest" offers access to ephemera, newspaper clippings, personal accounts, and photographs related to the 1916 Everett Massacre and the 1919 Centralia Massacre; letters and documents concerning opposition to the I.W.W.; and local Wobblie charters, letters, and manuscripts.

"The Seattle General Strike and Its Aftermath" includes photographs and documents from the strike; notes, letters, reports, news clippings, and ephemera related to the Central Labor Council of Seattle in the 1920s and 1930s; documents pertaining to the Seattle Union Record, the CLC's newspaper; documents related to Henry Ault, an editor of the paper; and letters, manuscripts, ephemera, and photographs concerning Anna Louise Strong, advocate of laborer and children's rights.

Look to "Anti-Labor Reactions and Labor Espionage" for photos and documents from the Spruce Production Division and the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen; speeches, articles, and letters by the Associated Industries; and 1919 and 1920 reports from spies within the labor movement.

"Labor and the New Deal" leads to photographs only. Here, you can find more than 450 photographs related to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Civil Works Administration, the CCC, and Works Progress Administration workers at the Grand Coulee Dam and elsewhere.

Finally, "Labor in the Modern Era" emphasizes Cesar Chavez and the farmworkers' movement, as well as protests held at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting. Resources include posters, interviews, fliers, pamphlets, and photographs.