Collection Overview
A Unique Collection
Over nineteen thousand linear feet of manuscript letters and documents are currently available in the Kheel Center. Other primary sources include over 350,000 historical photographs, 350 oral history interviews, over 40,000 collective bargaining agreements, and in excess of 230,000 union constitutions and rare pamphlets. The Kheel Center attempts to acquire all relevant microfilmed collections of primary sources in the history of industrial and labor relations. The Center is, in addition, the repository for the School's archives and maintains a growing number of rare books and union-related memorabilia.
American Industrial Relations Documents
Although virtually every significant nineteenth-century labor movement is represented in its collections, the Kheel Center's efforts to document American industrial relations in the twentieth century have been limited to selected subject areas. These include New York State industrial relations in the public and private sectors, national unions in the garment industry and railroads, labor arbitration and mediation, labor education, labor legislation, and management theory.
New York State
Holdings pertaining to the state of New York include the records of the Consumers’ League of New York, the Teachers’ Union of the City of New York, the National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees (1199), and various city centrals such as those in Auburn, Binghamton, Buffalo, Elmira, Geneva, Lockport, Oswego, Peekskill, Rome, and Utica. Also included are the minutes of a number of New York city local unions.
Garment and Clothing Unions
The Kheel Center is the preeminent repository for records of garment and clothing (or “needle trades”) unions, such as the International Union of Fur and Leather Workers, the Joint Board of Fur, Leather, and Machine Workers, the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
Notable Arbitrators
In addition to having been designated the archives for the National Academy of Arbitrators, the Kheel Center is the repository for the papers of many notable arbitrators, among them Theodore W. Kheel, Paul Abelson, Gabriel Alexander, Jacob Billikopf, Maxwell Copelof, David Cole, I. Robert Feinberg, Clara Friedman, Milton Friedman, James Gross, George Hildebrand, James Hill, E.E. Hilpert, John Horlacker, Willard Hotchkiss, Vernon Jensen, William Leiserson, Mabel Leslie, John McConnell, Jean McKelvey, Arthur Meyer, Eli Rock, Jacob Seidenberg, Isaac Siegmeister, Peter Seitz, Ralph Seward, William Simkin, Morton Singer, Burton Turkus, S. Herbert Unterberger, Saul Wallen, Bertram Willcox, Benjamin Wolf, Sidney Wolff, Louis Yagoda, and Arnold Zack.
Teachers' Unions
The records of American Federation of Teachers Locals 2 and 189, those of the Teachers' Union of the City of New York (AFT Local 5), the New York State Teachers' Association, and the New York State United Teachers form the largest part of our holdings in the area of education. Also significant are the Pearl L. Willen Memorial Collection of the records of the American Labor Education Service, as well as other workers' education programs, such as the Workers' Education Bureau and the Hudson Shore Labor School.
Work-Related Legislation
The activities of groups interested in the development of work-related protective and regulatory legislation are well represented in the collections of the KheelCenter. Included are the records of the American Association for Labor Legislation and the American Association for Social Security. Substantial materials relating to the National Consumers' League and the Consumers' League of New York are also held.
Railroads and Transportation
The KheelCenter is a major repository for railroad industrial relations records, including those of the United Transportation Union and its predecessors, the Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen, the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, and the Switchmen's Union of North America. Also held are the records of the Brotherhood of Railway, Airline, and Steamship Clerks, the Railway Labor Executives' Association, and the AFL's Railway Employees Department.
Management Theory
Records relating to management theory include those of the Academy of Management and papers relating to E. Wight Bakke, Harrington Emerson, Richard A. Feiss, Keppele Hall, Ordway Tead, and Sanford E. Thompson.
