Title: Samuel Sigman Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1922-1953

Creator:

• Sigman, Samuel, 1899-1976

Call Number: Wis Mss MT; Tape 53A

Quantity: 2.0 c.f. (5 archives boxes and 1 oversize folder) and 1 tape recording

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:

Correspondence, recorded reminiscences, and personal campaign materials of Samuel Sigman, district attorney of Outagamie County, Wis., 1935-1936, and a leader and organizer in the Wisconsin Progressive movement. The papers reflect the growth and decline of the Progressive party in the 1920s and 1930s and include correspondence from numerous political and labor leaders. The collection also contains business papers of other organizations with which Sigman was affiliated, including the Appleton Labor College, the Appleton Trades and Labor Council, the Fox River Valley Home Merchants Association, and the Wisconsin Federation of Commercial Fishermen.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-wis000mt

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Samuel Sigman attended law school at the University of Wisconsin and at George Washington University. In 1927 he passed his bar examination and moved to Appleton to join his brother's law firm. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, he served as secretary of the board of trustees of Appleton Labor College, and acted as counsel for the Appleton Trades and Labor Council, for the Fox River Valley Home Merchants Association, and for the Wisconsin Federation of Commercial Fishermen.

From his school days, Sigman was active in the Wisconsin Progressive movement. Even before his graduation from law school he served as secretary to George Schneider, Progressive Republican congressmen from the ninth district. In 1928 he was campaign secretary for Robert M. La Follette, Jr. Sigman made several campaigns for the district attorneyship of Outagamie County, and in 1934 finally succeeded in becoming the first Progressive to be elected to office in Outagamie County. He helped to organize and was the first chairman of the Farmer-Labor Progressive League. Later he served on the executive board of the Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation (later renamed the Progressive Party Federation).

During the 1940s, with the slow decline of the Progressive movement in Wisconsin, Sigman become one of the many Progressives to transfer allegiance to the Democratic Party. In later years Sigman was active in the human rights movement, working with the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, and acting as secretary-treasurer of the Appleton Interfaith Committee on Tolerance and Understanding (affiliated with the Governor's Commission on Human Rights).

The Samuel Sigman Papers reflect more than the activities of a single local politician. They also reflect the growth and decline of the Progressive movement during the 1920s and 1930s: its changing organization, its shifting political alliances, its sources of support and opposition on both right and left. For instance, they demonstrate the close involvement of the labor movement in the Progressive cause at the local level. The correspondence, arranged chronologically by months, includes letters exchanged with national and state political figures, state labor leaders, and others. Among Sigman's correspondents represented in the collection are the following:

• Amlie, Thomas
• Dammann, Theodore
• Ekern, Herman L.
• Empey, Roy
• Evjue, William T.
• Frank, Glenn
• Gross, Edwin
• Groves, Harold M.
• Handley, John J.
• Hoan, Daniel W.
• Huber, Henry A.
• Hull, Merlin
• Jones, Burr W.
• La Follette, Philip F.
• La Follette, Robert M., Jr.
• Loomis, Orland S.
• Nelson, John M.
• Norris, George
• Ohl, Henry, Jr.
• Peavey, Hubert H.
• Rabinovitz, David
• Reed, James A.
• Schneider, George
• Shoemaker, Alice
• Wheeler, Burton K.
• Witte, Edwin E.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Samuel Sigman, Appleton, Wisconsin, 1959.

Processing Information

Processed by Emilie Al-Khazraji, May 19, 1964.

Wis Mss MT	Correspondence
Box   1	1922-1929
Box   2	1930-1934 September
Box   3	1934 September-1953
	Personal Material
Box   4	Campaign Materials Note: Unsorted
Oversize Folder   1	Oversize Items
Box   4	Clippings, 1929-1948
Box   4	Speeches, 1927-1929, 1932, 1944
	Organizations Scope and Content Note: Miscellaneous materials, including minutes of meetings, financial statements, etc.
Box   4	Appleton labor College, 1927-1929
Box   4	Appleton Trades and Labor Council, 1928-1933
Box   4	Fox Valley Merchants, 1930
Box   5	Progressive political organizations, circa 1924-1940 Scope and Content Note: Includes financial statements, minutes, various lists of progressives, etc., relating to the Farmer-Labor Progressive Federation, and the Progressive party.
Oversize Folder   1	Oversize poster
Box   5	Wisconsin Federation of Commercial Fishermen, 1929-1930
Tape 53A	Interview with Samuel Sigman, November 18, 1953 Scope and Content Note: Deals with his career, Congressman Schneider, Robert La Follette, Sr., the Farm Labor League, the birth of the Progressive Party in 1934, and the definition of the term “Progressive.”