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AFL-CIO Merger Oral History Project collection

 Collection 0012-LBR-RG98-005

In December of 1955, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged into one entity, the AFL-CIO. This is a collection of AFL-CIO staff oral histories explores the history of the merger including challenges and successes.

Dates

  • 1978-1980

Conditions Governing Access

This collection may contain restricted materials and will need to be screened by prior to use. Please contact us before visiting the Special Collections reading room to view this collection. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

Photocopies or digital surrogates may be provided in accordance with Special Collections and University Archives duplication policy.

Copyright resides with the creators of the documents or their heirs unless otherwise specified. It is the researcher's responsibility to secure permission to publish materials from the appropriate copyright holder.

Archival materials may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal and/or state right to privacy laws or other regulations. While we make a good faith effort to identify and remove such materials, some may be missed during our processing. If a researcher finds sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.

Extent

1.50 Linear Feet

Scope and Content of the Collection

In December of 1955, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged into one entity, the AFL-CIO. This is a collection of AFL-CIO staff oral histories explores the history of the merger including challenges and successes. Persons interviewed include I.W. Abel, Andrew Biemiller, Irving Brown, Nelson Cruikshank, Joseph Curran, Evelyn Dubrow, Arthur Goldberg, Stanley Ruttenberg, William F. Schnitzler, J. Albert Woll, Albert Zack, and Charles Zimmerman, and other figures from the labor movement.

Custodial History

The George Meany Memorial Archives received these records in 1985. The George Meany Memorial Archives transferred these records as part of a major transfer of their archive and library holdings to the University of Maryland Libraries in 2013.

Processing Information

Archives staff at the George Meany Memorial Archives initially processed these records between 1985 and 2013. The University of Maryland Libraries received the records and the finding aid in 2013. In 2017, Bria Parker exported and cleaned the finding aid contents from the Eloquent Systems database using OpenRefine, and finally transformed the finding aids into Encoded Archival Description (EAD) using a series of programmatic scripts. The finding aid was ingested into ArchivesSpace in 2017, at which point Jennifer Eidson updated the descriptive content for accuracy. Revisions include changes to scope and content notes, and the creation of new collection numbers. Jennifer Eidson also enhanced custodial histories and re-wrote collection titles to better conform to archival standards.

In 2016, the transcripts were digitized and added to Digital Collections as JPEG files. A keyword searchable PDF version of the transcripts was created at the same time; please contact askhornbake@umd.edu for more information.

Title
Guide to the AFL-CIO Merger Oral History Project collection
Status
Completed
Author
George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archives
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Code for undetermined script
Language of description note
Finding aid written in English.

Library Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives

Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
Hornbake Library
4130 Campus Drive
College Park Maryland 20742
301-405-9212