Summary Information

Title: Nelson Cruikshank Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1927-1989

Creator:

• Cruikshank, Nelson H., 1902-1986

Call Number: Mss 1002; M84-329; M96-082; M2000-175; M2008-087; Audio 1269A

Quantity: 19.0 cubic feet (17 records center cartons, 2 archives boxes, and 4 card boxes); plus additions of 0.1 cubic feet, 11 disc recordings, 5 tape recordings, 420 photographs, and 38 transparencies

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Papers of Nelson Cruikshank, director (1944-1965) of the AFL and the AFL-CIO Social Security Department in which capacity he was involved in much of the Social Security legislation of the 1950s and in the creation of Medicare. He was also an adviser to AFL-CIO presidents William Green and George F. Meany. Cruikshank also exercised general oversight of health and welfare programs of all AFL-CIO internationals and state federations. Particularly well documented in this regard are the California Federation of Labor and the Laundry Workers International Union, as well as his participation in the investigation of alleged mishandling of union welfare funds. Additional files concern the important 1960 White House Conference on Aging, the National Advisory Council on Social Security Financing, and the AFL-CIO's Social Security Advisory Committee. The papers primarily document his involvement with the AFL-CIO prior to 1961 so that his role in Medicare during the 1960s is not well represented. After retiring from the AFL-CIO in 1965 Cruikshank was a national leader on issues pertaining to health care and the aging, serving as a member of the Health Insurance Benefits Advisory Council, as president of the National Council of Senior Citizens, and as advisor to President Jimmy Carter on aging issues. The collection includes some documentation about the above topics. The papers consist of correspondence and memoranda, speeches and writings (some in recorded form), and minutes and meeting files for the Federal Advisory Council on Employment Security and the previously mentioned advisory committees. Correspondence and draft materials relate to the publication of his memoirs, The Cruikshank Chronicles, by Alice Cruikshank Hoffman as part of the Save Our Security (SOS) Education Project. Prominent correspondents include Wilbur Cohen, Aime Forand, Dan Goldy, Wilbur Mills, and Mathew Woll.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss01002

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