Alan Kistler papers
Collection
0086-LBR-RG95-009
Alan Kistler was director of the Department of Organization and Field Services of the AFL-CIO from 1974 to 1986. His early career consisted of membership and leadership in union locals in Pittsburgh before becoming an organizer for the CIO and then the AFL-CIO. His papers document his official activities in organizing disputes during the years 1987 to 1992, and extensive correspondence from his time as department director. Other material types include research files, articles, memos, clippings, and union cards.
This collection is open to the public and must be used in the Special Collections reading room. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection.
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.
31 Linear Feet (19 paige boxes, 1 hollinger box, 1 oversize flat-top box )
This collection comprises the papers of Alan Kistler, director of the Department of Organization and Field Services of the AFL-CIO from 1974 to 1986. It is especially rich in documenting his official activities as chief umpire in organizing disputes during the years 1987 to 1992. Also included is extensive correspondence to and from Kistler during the period from 1978 to 1985 while he served as director of the department, as well as departmental bulletins and memos from 1958 to 1970. There are robust materials and files from initiatives and projects that Kistler worked on while employed at the AFL-CIO, such as the Human Resources Development Institute, as well as articles and clippings related to these activities and unions in general. Also documented are Kistler’s union activities and academic research as a graduate student at the University of Chicago, his union activism within the Catholic church, union cards from before and during the time Kistler was employed at the AFL-CIO, and small files regarding his work as mayor of Greenbelt, member of the D.C. Neighborhood Planning Council, and Hubert H. Humphrey Chair at the University of Minnesota.
Alan Kistler was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1920. He graduated from high school in Pittsburgh, attended the University of Pittsburgh, and graduated from the University of Chicago with an M.S. degree in 1951. He joined the Hotel and Restaurant Employees' and Bartenders' International Union local in Pittsburgh and was a volunteer organizer in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh before serving as a master sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1942 to 1946. After the war, Kistler worked as a newspaperman, joined the American Newspaper Guild, and became unit chair of the Pittsburgh branch of the guild. He was elected recording secretary and chief steward of Pittsburgh Local Industrial Union 1657, Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), in 1949, and became a member of Local 1147, United Steelworkers of America, CIO, in 1952.
In 1952, Kistler went to Washington, D.C., as an organizer and assistant to CIO executive vice president Allan Haywood. After the CIO merged with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1954, Kistler was assigned to the Department of Organization. There, he served as coordinator of the General Electric cooperative organizing program and coordinated organizing campaigns conducted by the brewery workers and school administrators. He was appointed assistant director of the AFL-CIO Department of Organization in 1962; after the department was reorganized and renamed the Department of Organization and Field Services in 1973, Kistler was named director in 1974. In 1975, he was elected president of the Human Resources Development Institute (HRDI).
Kistler retired in 1986, but continued to be active in the labor movement. Throughout his career, Kistler was involved in community affairs and local government. He was a member of the Greenbelt, Maryland, city council from 1955 to 1959 and served as mayor of Greenbelt from 1959 to 1961. Kistler and his wife, Marie Frances Connolly, had three children. Alan Kistler died in 2008 at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland.
This collection is organized into fourteen series:
The George Meany Memorial Archives acquired this collection in two separate accessions. The first donation was made by Alan Kistler in 1996. In November 2008, his son, Kevin Kistler, donated the second part of what would become this collection. Additionally, three files created by Kistler that were transferred to the archives in 1986 and 1987 and were housed in RG98-003 (Miscellaneous Items) have been integrated into this collection.
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.
Kevin Kistler donated three smaller accessions to the University of Maryland in 2015, 2016, and 2017. These accessions have been integrated into the collection.
This collection, originally comprising 33 cubic feet, was minimally processed at the George Meany Memorial Archives. The processor removed only visibly rusted staples and paperclips and replaced them with plastic clips. Documents were removed from binders, plastic sleeves, and plastic ring binding. The majority of the newsprint in the collection was either deteriorating or discoloring other materials; it was discarded and no preservation copy was made. Audio/visual materials and books not produced by the AFL-CIO were discarded. In a few instances, photographs were removed from mats and frames. The processor placed all photographs together in a series. Material deemed to hold no evidential or historical value was discarded along with duplicates and carbon copies. The processor maintained the original order of materials within the folders. Records from the different accessions (1986, 1987, 1996 and 2008) were processed together.
Heather Meixler at the George Meany Memorial Archives initially processed these records in 2009. 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 2018, at which point Rebecca Thayer updated the descriptive content for accuracy. Revisions include changes to biographical/historical notes, scope and content notes, and the creation of new collection numbers. Rebecca Thayer also enhanced custodial histories and re-wrote collection titles to better conform to archival standards.
In 2023, Anna Szapiro reviewed and compared three new accessions 2015-035, 2016-055, and 2017-0107 to one another, and with processed documents in RG95-009. Identified duplicates from the new accessions were discarded. Photographs from all three new accessions were relocated to RG95-009 Series 11: Photographs in Box 15, Folders 10-14, with photos from the existing collection. Acid-free paper was placed as a buffer between photographs within acid-free folders.
After discarding duplicates, the number of paige boxes containing the new accessions was reduced from three to two. Boxes containing the new accessions were physically added at the end of the collection and numbered consecutively beginning with Box 18 and ending with Box 21. Since no original order was present in these new accessions, folders were consolidated to prevent overlap and some folder titles were renamed to reflect the addition of new materials. Materials were arranged in chronological order where possible. All changes to the arrangement have been reflected in the accession inventories.
Folders were integrated intellectually into existing series in the resource record according to their content and have been entered in chronological order. An additional series, Series 14: Artifacts, was added to the resource record to include items from Accessions 2017-0701 (plaques) and 2016-055 (pins, buttons, plaques, and doily). In this series, materials are described at the folder level.
To process pins and buttons from Accession 2016-055, pins and buttons were removed from plastic bags. One of each type was selected for inclusion, making 82 items total. Duplicates were discarded. Items were then then divided into four categories: (1) convention guest and delegate medals, (2) states and foreign nations, (3) local unions and other AFL-CIO affiliates, and (4) campaigns. Pins/buttons were placed in small trays according to their category. These trays were labeled 1-37 and placed in a paige box in ascending order beginning with convention and delegate medals on the bottom, followed by state and foreign nation buttons, then local union and other AFL-CIO affiliates, and ending with campaign buttons at the top. The items were entered into the resource record’s Series 14: Artifacts as Sub-Series: Buttons, pins, and medals. The box also includes a lone doily, entered as an individual item in Series 14. A map and explanation of the arrangement were placed in the box for use by researchers.
Existing Collection and Series notes were updated to include dates and extents. Folder names with known acronyms were expanded where possible. Processing information notes, scope and content notes, and historical and biographical note were also updated to reflect information in the new materials.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives