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The Martin P. Catherwood Library at the Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, is the largest academic collection on labor and industrial relations in the United States. The 813 manuscript accessions and 230,833 documentary items held by its Labor-Management Documentation Center, make the Catherwood Library an especially rich source for the study of labor history. The Library of the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations was founded in 1945. It was renamed in 1971 to honor Martin P. Catherwood, second Dean of the School, who subsequently served as New York State Industrial Commissioner. Although its primary purpose has always been to support the instructional, research, and extension functions of the academic unit of which it is a part, the Catherwood Library has, as well, developed a world- wide reputation for the quality of its holdings in the areas of collective bargaining, labor law, labor union administration, labor economics, income security, human resources, personnel administration, and, of course, labor history. The book, periodical, and government document collections housed in the Catherwood's open stacks include convention proceedings, officers' reports, and journals for every major and most minor 20th century labor unions.

The Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America in Cambridge, Massachusetts was founded in 1943 when Radcliffe College, Cambridge, accepted the Woman's Rights Collection (WRC) . The WRC documents several woman's suffrage organizations and includes the papers of Maud Wood Park and other women active in the women rights movement. But it does not end with 1920, the year the federal suffrage amendment was ratified, and it includes the library's first labor collection, papers of Frances Perkins, U.S. Secretary of Labor, 1933-45, and the first woman in the Cabinet. Thus despite the emphasis on suffrage and women's political and legal rights, labor issues, from the beginning have been an integral part of the Schlesinger Library. At about the time the WRC arrived at Radcliffe, president Wilbur K. Jordan and Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, of the Harvard University's history department decided to make it the centerpiece of a growing research library on women, rather than a static memorial to the suffrage movement. Soon after, in December 1945, another major labor collection arrived, the papers of Leonora O'Reilly. O'Reilly's papers make up one major series in the micropublication, "The Papers of the Women's Trade Union League and Its Principal Leaders," a project sponsored by the Schlesinger Library, edited by Edward T. James, and published by Research Publications Inc. in 1981.

The article presents information about the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP), which has, in the past two years, significantly added to already existing archival collections with the addition of several important groups of labor-related materials. In 1986 due to the expansion of its present office structure and the creation of an in-house computer center, the Rochester and Pittsburgh (R&P) Coal Co. donated many of its corporate archives to IUP. This collection, consisting of 420 linear feet, constitutes one of the most complete groups of coal company records in the East. Probably the most significant group of papers consists of the presidential files of R&P and of its several predecessor companies. Lucius Waterman Robinson left papers rich in labor history and the industrial heritage of Western Pennsylvania. B.M. Clark and his son, Heath S. Clark, both served as president during periods of industrial expansion and labor-management strife, and these are reflected in their surviving correspondence. The R&P collection also contains a unique group of early financial ledgers which document the founding of the company's 17 mining towns, beginning with the parent company's incorporation in 1881.

The article presents information about the Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, and its labor history resources. Rutgers University was founded in 1766 and has been in the process of building library collections for over two centuries, however, the concept of building manuscript and archival holdings in an organized fashion dates back less than 50 years. Rutgers' Special Collections and Archives now includes approximately 3000 manuscript collections and the largest and most comprehensive collection of New Jersey books, pamphlets, newspapers, maps, broadsides, and pictorial materials. Although the major focus of the collection has been New Jersey and its history, significant 20th century holdings have been developed in such areas as the consumer movement, social welfare policy, and women's history, all areas that have collections relating to labor history. Also at Rutgers are the papers of over 20 New Jersey politicians who have served in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, dating from William Paterson's term in the Senate to former Congressman/now Governor James J. Florio.

The Urban Archives Center at Temple University was established in 1967 by a member of the History Department to document the lives of common urban dwellers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Instead of collecting the papers of well-known figures, these new social history archives acquired manuscript collections that represented services provided to working-class people. Typical collections include the records of housing, minority, educational reform, social welfare; and labor organizations. Currently, the Urban Archives Center serves as the research base of the newly established Center for Public History which is jointly administered by the library system of the and the History Department of the Temple University. The Archives is one component of the Center for Public History, which also offers courses in applied history through the History Department, programs with the Philadelphia Board of Education, and conferences on various aspects of public history. One of the Center's most important acquisitions of the last few years is the records of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co. Acquired through the Center's participation in the Penn Central Railroad Appraisal Project, the collection now comprises one of the largest collections of organizational records housed at the Temple University.

The article presents information about the UE/Labor Archives (UELA), a division of the Archives of Industrial Society at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The UE/Labor Archives was established in 1975. It is the official repository for the records of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and its geographic districts in the U.S. It is also the home for dozens of other collections about labor in Western Pennsylvania, including labor union records, corporate employment and personnel files, the records of labor attorneys, labor activists and organizations associated with the labor movement. The UE collection is also the repository for the records of all cur- rent UE districts in the U.S. The records of Districts 2, 6, 7, and 11 are open, and those of District 1 are partially opened. Two closely related collections in the UELA are the papers of Thomas Quinn, a former UE activist and current director of the Pennsylvania Bureau of Mediation and Conciliation, and Margaret Darin Stasik, a former UE activist and staff member.

Penn State's Historical Collections & Labor Archives (HCLA), a unit of the University's Pattee Library, began in 1958 as a special col- lection of historical source material concerning Pennsylvania. In the roughly 20 years since the beginning of its labor archives project, HCLA has acquired a variety of sources that docu- ment both working class institutions as well as the lives of workers themselves. HCLA has the records of state-wide labor federations, central bodies, and local unions. The largest single group of records in HCLA is the United Steelworkers of America Archive, which covers the union's membership throughout the U.S. and documents the internal and external activities of every hierarchical level of the organization. Manuscript collections donated by labor leaders, organizers, activists, and industrial relations experts complement the records of labor organizations at HCLA. Oral histories provide another vital set of documents about organizing campaigns, formation of union policy, rank and file movements, mergers of unions, and the formative experiences of labor leaders.

The Tamiment Institute/Ben Josephson Library, the first library in the U.S. devoted to collecting material for the study of socialism, was begun in 1906 as the library of the Rand School of Social Science and continues operations today, a vital repository of rare socialist and trade union documents, books and periodicals. Renamed the Tamiment Institute Library in 1963, the library was incorporated into New York University library's system and in 1973 physically moved into NYU's Bobst Library complex. The founding of the Rand School was the natural culmination of a number of activities by socialists, open-air meetings, soap-box addresses, study groups, literary societies, and the discussion of "live issues" during the internal struggles of the Socialist Party. Starting in the 1920s, and into the 1930s, first under the directorship of Alexander Trachtenberg and later Solon De Leon, the Rand School Library augmented its labor holdings through the Research Department's publishing activities, the American Labor Year Book; a monthly index of labor periodicals; and the American Labor Who's Who. Tamiment Institute president Ben Josephson, Bertha Mailly's assistant at Camp Tamiment and then successor, spent his retirement at the library. It was his efforts which were principally responsible for preserving the Rand School Library and effecting its transfer to NYU.