|
Contact:
Sarah Oltrogge, (515) 281-4011
IOWA CITY,
Iowa—As we celebrate
Labor Day, the State Historical Society of Iowa invites historians and researchers
to uncover the riches of the Iowa Labor Collection, which now includes the Iowa
Labor History Oral Project Index and a CD-ROM, Lessons in Iowa Labor History.
The Iowa Labor History Oral Project
is a collection of 1,100 oral histories conducted with Iowans across the state,
including union members from the major industrial centers (Burlington, Cedar Rapids,
Clinton, Des Moines, Dubuque, Ottumwa, Quad Cities, Sioux City and Waterloo) and
many smaller communities, particularly near coal mining regions. The transcripts
of the interviews have been microfilmed and are available through inter-library
loan. A new comprehensive index to these interviews is free to public libraries.
Lessons in Iowa Labor History, an
interactive CD-ROM, is an instructional tool for teachers and students. The CD-ROM
includes the index to the interviews and offers selected excerpts from the oral
history interviews along with newspaper articles, photographs, and a movie clip.
Included are stories about the 1902 Lost Creek Coal Mine Disaster in Mahaska County,
which led to safety legislation; the nationally significant Maytag strike in Newton
in 1938; and the 1947 Labor Holiday, when thousands of Iowa workers converged
on the State Capitol to protest a controversial right-to-work law passed by the
Iowa legislature. The CD-ROMs will be made available to interested parties at
a nominal cost.
"The Iowa Labor History Oral
Project interviews are about real people, what they did, the values they held,
and the changes they collectively brought about in their communities," said
Mary Bennett, special collections coordinator and project director. "The
testimonies of the narrators come together to chronicle a grassroots history of
Iowa communities from the building of factories to plant closings. They tell us
much about the history of local unions and how they were organized and along the
way they shed light on issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and class. The spirit
of labor speaks to us loudly and clearly through the pages of the oral history
interviews."
The Iowa Labor Collection is comprised
of records and documents, photographs and films, and thousands of publications.
Maintaining and developing these archival resources would not have been possible
without the assistance of Mark Smith, president of the Iowa Federation of Labor,
AFL-CIO, and Senator Tom Harkin who obtained federal funding from the Institute
of Museum and Library Services.
For more information on
the Historical Society holdings in the Iowa Labor Collection, visit
www.iowahistory.org/archives/research_collections/iowa_labor_collection/default.html.
Images available upon request. Call
319-335-3916.
###
Return
to What's New Section |
