Lane Kirkland papers
Collection
0040-LBR-RG95-007
Joseph Lane Kirkland was president of the AFL-CIO from 1979-1995. This collection of his personal papers is especially rich in documenting his official activities as seen in the popular press and his wide-ranging domestic and international social and political contacts. Also of interest are the papers pertaining to his family's history in South Carolina and elsewhere; some of the early activities in his life, including his maritime and wartime years; an extensive array of artifacts; and numerous photographs.
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10.50 Linear Feet
English
This collection comprises the personal papers of Joseph Lane Kirkland, president of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to 1995. It is especially rich in documenting his official activities as seen in the popular press and his wide-ranging domestic and international social and political contacts. Also of interest are: papers pertaining to his family's history in South Carolina and elsewhere; some of the early activities in his life, including his maritime and wartime years; an extensive array of artifacts; and numerous photographs. There are also a few records that concern Irena Kirkland's participation in the U.S. Secretary of State's Advisory Commission on Refugees. Descriptions of each series and the types of materials they contain may be found in the series notes.
Joseph Lane Kirkland was born in Camden, South Carolina on March 12, 1922, the son of Randolph Withers and Louise Richardson Kirkland. He attended Newberry College in 1940 and graduated from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in 1942. During World War II, Kirkland served as a deck officer on board merchant ships and was a member of the National Organization of Masters, Mates & Pilots of America. Near the end of the war, he became a licensed master mariner and at the end of the war entered the U.S. Navy's Hydrographic Office as a nautical scientist. In the evenings he attended Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1948.
In 1948, Kirkland joined the research staff of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), working there throughout the early 1950s. After the AFL and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) merged in 1955, Kirkland became associate director of the Social Security Department. From 1958 to 1960, Kirkland served as director of research and education for the International Union of Operating Engineers. He became the executive assistant to AFL-CIO President George Meany in 1961. In 1969, Kirkland was elected secretary-treasurer of the federation upon the resignation of William Schnitzler and succeeded Meany as president in 1979. Kirkland served as president of the AFL-CIO until his retirement from office in August 1995. He died on August 14, 1999, of lung cancer at his home in Washington, D.C. at the age of 77. He was survived by his wife, Irena (nee Neumann), and five children from his previous marriage to Edith Draper Hollyday.
As president, Kirkland focused on workers' rights on an international level, from South Africa to Poland, as well as on issues affecting U.S. workers, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and social security. He also helped to unify the labor movement; some of the country's largest unions affiliated with the AFL-CIO in the 1980s: the United Auto Workers, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the United Mine Workers, and others. During his presidency, Kirkland expanded the George Meany Center for Labor Studies, started the Labor Institute for Public Affairs, and put into place programs to eliminate conflict between unions engaged in organizing drives. In 1993, Kirkland was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, considered to be the country's highest civilian honor.
Gary M. Fink, ed., Biographical Dictionary of American Labor (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984), p. 336.
"Lane Kirkland, Former AFL-CIO Head, Dies at 77," The Outlook, vol. 56, no. 3 (July-September 1999; "Lane Kirkland: A Warrior for Working Families," Inside the AFL-CIO, September 10, 1999.
Ibid; "Former AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland dies at 77," Labor Record, vol. 68, no. 14 (August 26, 1999).
Ibid; James B. Parks, "Remembering Lane Kirkland," America at Work, September 1999; "AFL-CIO President Emeritus Lane Kirkland Dies at 77," BCTGM News, vol. 1, no. 5. September/October 1999.
This collection is organized into ten series:
The bulk of this collection was donated to the George Meany Memorial Archives by Joseph Lane Kirkland by deed of gift on March 13, 1995. The collection dates to 1998, however, because three boxes were loaned to Lane Kirkland in 1996 and appear to have been returned after additional materials had been added to them. In addition, other personal material found in Lane Kirkland's office shortly after his death was added to the collection in 1999; that material can be found in box 4, folder 18.
Series 10 (Lane Kirkland, 1942, 1956-1995) of RG96-001 (Photographic Prints) has been integrated into Series 10 of this collection. Also, to facilitate research access, a small amount of non-memorabilia material from AR1994-0011 has been integrated into this collection; items from this accession have been marked to identify their provenance.
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.
Sarah Springer and Lynda DeLoach at the George Meany Memorial Archives initially processed these records in 2001. The University of Maryland Libraries received the records and the finding aid in 2013. In 2017, Bria Parker migrated the information contained in this finding aid from the George Meany Memorial Archives' Eloquent system. All migrated finding aids have been cleaned using OpenRefine software and ingested into ArchivesSpace using programmatic scripts created in Python. Upon ingest, Rebecca Thayer reviewed and minor revisions to this finding aid. 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.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives