Labor Day
The National Archives and Records Administration holds records created or received by the U.S. Government on issues of labor and labor rights, including records on unions, strikes and responses, debates about women and children in the workplace, and the Government’s role in providing economic security and workplace rights. These records document and detail the struggle to define and assert workplace rights. We not only hold these records, we provide access to them. View a selection of records from the National Archives Catalog.
Labor and Woman Suffrage
During this centennial year of the 19th Amendment in 2020, we note the intersection between the struggle for labor rights and the fight for woman suffrage. Portions of our exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote look at the contributions of working women and labor organizers.
In the early 20th century, young women painted the dials of watches and clocks with radium to create glow-in-the-dark faces. Many of the women, known as Radium Girls, became horribly disfigured, and many died horrible deaths. Learn about these women in "The Radium Girls at the National Archives" and in records in our Catalog.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 caused the deaths of 146 women and inspired reforms in labor practices. Read "A Factory Fire and Frances Perkins," and view photographs of the aftermath of the fire in the National Archives Catalog.
A discussion of labor organizer Bessie Hillman in a recorded author lecture on America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today
After the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of March 25, 1911, a march on April 5 attracted thousands of women calling for safer working conditions and union representation.
Papers of the Women’s Trade Union League and Its Principal Leaders, supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission
"From Slave Women to Free Women: Black Women's History in the Civil War Era," an article in Prologue magazine exploring women's labor after slavery.
Native girls packing pineapple into cans. By Edgeworth, taken for the Katakura & Company, November 20, 1928. National Archives, Records of the Women s Bureau
The Way We Worked
From December 2005 to May 2006, the National Archives presented "The Way We Worked," a photo exhibition focusing on the history of work in America, in the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC. Below are links to photographs and other content related to that exhibition.
Records relating to Samuel Gompers (1850–1924) (Gompers was president of the American Federation of Labor and a member of the President's First Industrial Conference in 1919, and the President's Unemployment Conference in 1921
- Letter from American Federation of Labor President Samuel Gompers to Joseph Cannon
- Letter from Samuel Gompers, president of the AFL, to Mr. L. White Busbey
- Samuel Gompers’s correspondence when he chaired the Committee on Labor.
Records relating to The United States of America v. Eugene V. Debs. Debs, a leading member of the Socialist Party, gave an antiwar speech on June 16, 1918. He was indicted for violating the Espionage Act of 1917, convicted, and sentenced to Federal prison. Debs appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, but the earlier verdict was upheld. He was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and campaigned for the Presidency while in jail. In December 1921, President Harding commuted his sentence and he was released. Read "Free Speech on Trial" in Prologue magazine.
National Industrial Recovery Act of 1933
Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938
Records About Worker-Initiated Strikes and Employer-Initiated Lockouts, 1953–1981
Delano Grape Strike and Boycott 1965
Records About Wage Increases, 1971–1974
Records About Major Collective Bargaining Agreements, 1974–1995. U.S. Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field (so-called “Rackets Committee”) 1/30/57–3/31/60.
Records for the Study of Labor and Business History at the National Archives at San Francisco
Social Media and Blogs
Women Workers in Wartime: Personnel Records Offer Valuable Insight into Civilian Employees’ Lives
Plumage of Pomp: The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935
African Americans and the American Labor Movement
Labor-related Records Groups
RG 9 - National Recovery Administration
RG 100 - Records of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration
RG 102 - Records of the Children’s Bureau (child labor laws)
RG 150 - National Bituminous Coal Commission
RG 174 - General Records of the Department of Labor
RG 220 - President's Committee on Migratory Labor
RG 257 - Records of the Bureau of Labor Statistics
RG 432 - Records of the Economic Stabilization Programs
FDR Library
Address at the Dedication of the Samuel Gompers Memorial Monument, 1939
Audio: Labor Day Address, 9/5/1938
Audio: Labor Day Address, 9/1/1941: "We shall do everything in our power..."
Eisenhower Library
Records of the President’s Committee on Migratory Labor
Finding Aid to Eisenhower Library holdings on labor issues
Kennedy Library
JFK Legislative Summary on Labor Issues
JFK’s Address to the AFL-CIO’s 2nd Constitutional Convention, 10/31/57
JFK’s speech to the United Steel Workers, 9/18/58
JFK’s speech to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, 5/14/58
JFK’s Labor Day message to youth of the nation, September 3,1962
Photos
Labor Day weekend 1963, at Hyannis Port: JFK with Caroline Kennedy and JFK Jr., friends and ponies
Ford Library
Ford’s Labor Day Message, 1974
Ford’s Labor Day Remarks at the AFL-CIO Labor Day Benefit, 8/30/1975
Carter Library
Jimmy Carter at Labor Day Picnic for Labor leaders, 9/3/79
Reagan Library
Message on the Observance of Labor Day, 9/4/1981
Proclamation 4957 - Working Mothers' Day
Proclamation 5637 - The 75th Anniversary of the Department of Labor
Obama Library
Artworks and Mockups for Cartoons Promoting the War Effort and Original Sketches by Charles Alston, ca. 1942 - ca. 1945. Record Group 208: Records of the Office of War Information, 1926 - 1951. View in the National Archives Catalog.
Women Demonstrating Against Child Labor, 1900s . View in the National Archives Catalog.