This collection provides a thorough record of the activities of the School for Workers, the experiences of its faculty and students, and the role of workers' education in the Wisconsin labor movement from 1925 to 1965. It documents the leadership and perspectives of faculty, the Wisconsin labor movement's involvement in workers' education, the impacts of workers' education on rank and file workers and labor leaders, the working lives and political ideas of students, and the school's curriculum.
This collection is divided into the following series: Committees and minutes, 1924-1952; General correspondence, Office of Director, 1924-1946; General correspondence to 1947, 1923-1947; General correspondence from 1947, 1947-1973; Cities correspondence, 1925-1941; Labor organizations correspondence, 1924-1946; Student correspondence and applications, 1925-1944; Faculty correspondence and reports, 1925-1946; Affiliated Schools for Workers correspondence, 1925-1939; General subject file, 1909-1943; Financial records, 1932-1939; Reports, 1924-1953; Newspaper clippings, radio scripts, and publications, 1929-1960; Research materials and correspondence, 1929-1961; Eightieth-anniversary records, 1983-2005; Yearbooks, newsletters, and miscellaneous publications, 1925-1959.
The committees and minutes series includes meeting minutes and correspondence related to the University Committee, the Conference Committee, and the Advisory Committee, also known as the Labor Faculty Advisory Committee. The University Committee served as the governing body of the school and included faculty representatives and University administrators. The Advisory Committee represented organized labor and included individuals such as State Federation of Labor Educational Committee Chairman Henry Rutz in the late 1920s. The correspondence and meeting minutes shed light on issues such as Alice Shoemaker's dual role as a teacher and administrator and the school's developing relationship with organized labor. (box 1, folder 5)
The correspondence from the Office of the Director covers Alice Shoemaker and Ernest Schwarztrauber's time as Directors. Frequent correspondents include members of the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA), faculty, Wisconsin labor leaders including Henry Rutz, Jake Friedrick, and Henry Ohl, and Civil Works Administration and Works Progress Administration staff. This series also includes correspondence documenting the conflict between Shoemaker and Schwarztrauber after his promotion to Director in 1937.
The general correspondence to 1947 series documents the school's relationships with similar institutions of workers' education and the curriculum and impact of specific courses and institutes such as the Teacher Training Institutes and the School for Unemployed Workers. Correspondence, reports, and other materials document the impacts of Works Progress Administration funding beginning in 1933 and the role of workers' education in the transformative labor movements of the 1930s. These records also include photographs of students such as a 1935 photograph of the racially diverse School for Unemployed Workers (box 7, folder 13).
The general correspondence post-1947 focuses mostly on the two-week institutes which replaced the six-week summer school in 1941. Correspondents include unions such as the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the International Association of Machinists, the United Auto Workers, and the Communications Workers of America. These records also include course schedules, brochures, programs, and reports. Reports and evaluations about foreign visitors reflect how during this period the school began to provide instruction to foreign union officials sent to the School for Workers by the U.S State Department.
The cities series includes correspondence organized by location, with an emphasis on the midwest. Much of the correspondence is related to scholarships for potential students or the performance of students sponsored by the Young Womens Christian Association (YWCA). Correspondence from labor organizations mostly covers the late 1930s and early 1940s and reflects the involvement of unions like the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union and the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees with the school.
The scholarship applications for the six-week summer school program are valuable sources that document the lives of rank-and-file union members from 1926 to 1940. They include essays detailing each student's work history full of vivid details about working-class life. In 1935, Philip Axelrod, the son of exiled Jewish participants in the 1905 Russian Revolution, described his childhood immersed in the labor movement and his organizing work with the International Pocket Book Workers Union. Telephone operator Helena B. Smith described the brutal conditions at her first job at a dry cleaning shop. (box 34, folder 13) Student correspondence, collected in volumes like "Round Robin Letters from Students in the 1936 Session of the School for Workers in Industry", reveals the impact of the program on individual students' shop floor organizing work. (box 33, folder 13)
The faculty correspondence and reports document the curriculum and impact of courses across the state, particularly during the period from 1933 to 1938. The teachers' reports reveal each teacher's pedagogy and how classes looked on a day-to-day basis. For example, Maud McCreery taught public speaking and parliamentary procedure to empower women trade unionists and women's auxiliary members. (box 37, folder 10) This series also includes faculty reports, meeting minutes, handouts, and other course materials.
The collection includes numerous small series. The Affiliated Schools for Workers was a coordinating agency for various summer schools for women workers across the country. The correspondence, programs, meeting minutes, and reports in this series detail the influence of these institutions on the School for Workers. The general subject file includes various reference publications used by faculty. The financial records include budgets from 1932-1939. Other small series include research materials and correspondence and the eightieth anniversary records. The anniversary records include programs, oral history transcripts, and transcripts of conference presentations.
The reports include field meeting reports, annual reports, and reports on various programs such as the Wisconsin Workers' Education program or the Citizenship Instruction for Wives of Union Members and Women Unionists program. Field meetings detail staff interactions with stakeholders like the YWCA, union locals, vocational college staff, and alumni associations across the country.
The newspaper clippings, radio scripts, and publications describe the activities of the school and the general history of the labor movement in Wisconsin with particular emphasis on the late 1930s. The radio scripts from 1926-1948 covered a variety of topics. In 1937 Wisconsin Public Radio programs included an interview with H. H. Mary Jensen, the only woman union truck driver in Wisconsin and an interview with H. H. Emil Jaquet, president of local 1377 of the International Association of Machinists. (box 44, folder 58)
The yearbooks, newsletters, and miscellaneous publications document the political ideas, feelings, working lives, and daily experiences of students in vivid detail. Issues of "The Script" from 1925 to 1935 illustrate how the school and labor movement changed over time. In its first issue, the yearbook focuses on the summer school experience, personal essays, and education. (box 47, folder 10) By 1932 articles focused on topics like industrial unionism, racial discrimination, and unemployment. (box 47, folder 17) By 1934 articles, political cartoons, and poetry covered socialism, the New Deal, and vagabondism. (box 47, folder 18) After the introduction of the short course in 1941, students had less time to write long form yearbooks.
