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CIO and AFL-CIO Research Department, Stanley H. Ruttenberg papers

 Collection 0070-LBR-RG13-005
Stanley H. Ruttenberg was an organizer for the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) becoming the Associate Director of Research in 1939 until 1948 when he became director of the CIO Department of Education and Research. After the merger of the CIO and the American Federation of Labor (AFL) Ruttenberg was named director of the AFL-CIO Department of Research until he move to the U.S. Department of Labor. The collection consists of subject files, speeches, and correspondence during his tenure with the CIO and AFL-CIO.

Dates

  • 1946-1964

Conditions Governing Access

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.

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 research find sensitive personal information in a collection, please bring it to the attention of the reading room staff.

Extent

7.50 Linear Feet

Inventories/Additional Information

Additional Description

Scope and Content of the Collection

The material in this collection, for the most part, reflects the years from the merger in 1955 until the time Stanley Ruttenberg left the AFL-CIO in 1962 and Nat Goldfinger became Director of Research. However, there are files that Ruttenberg brought with him from the CIO in 1955. The files that contain materials only from the CIO Department of Education and Research are filed in the subject files under "CIO." Files that were started in the CIO and that continued to be active after the merger have been maintained as they were under the general subject headings. In addition to the subjects of research with which the department dealt, the files reflect Ruttenberg's participation in organizations outside the AFL-CIO.

Biographical / Historical

Stanley H. Ruttenberg was born March 19, 1917 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He received his B.S. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1937. After graduation, Ruttenberg worked as an organizer and field representative for the Congress of Industrial Organizations in the Ohio Valley. In 1939 he became the CIO's Associate Director of Research, a position that he held until September 1948 when he became Director of the Department of Education and Research. The Associate Research Director was Katherine Ellickson and Associate Education Director was George Guernsey.

During Ruttenberg's tenure as director he sat on numerous other committees as well. He was a member of the National Planning Commission, the executive committee of UNESCO, the American Economic Association, American Statistical Association and the Industrial Relations Research Association. He served as director of various organizations such as the National Bureau of Economic Research, Resources for the Future, Inc., and the Joint committee on Economic Education. In 1955 when the Congress of Industrial Organizations and the American Federation of Labor merged, Ruttenberg was named director of the Department of Research with Peter Henle of the AFL as assistant director. He held that position until 1962 when he left to become Special Assistant to the Secretary of Labor.

Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into three series:
Series 1
Subject Files
Series 2
Speeches
Series 3
Correspondence

Custodial History

The CIO/AFL-CIO Economic Research Department transferred these records to the George Meany Memorial Archives in 1982. 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

Hope Nisly at the George Meany Memorial Archives initially processed these records in 1990. 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.

Record Groups

Administrative Information

Title
Guide to the CIO and AFL-CIO Research Department, Stanley H. Ruttenberg papers
Status
Completed
Author
Collection was processed by Hope Nisly at the George Meany Memorial Archive.
Date
1990-06
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

Library Details

Part of the Special Collections and University Archives

http://www.lib.umd.edu/special
Contact:
University of Maryland Libraries
Hornbake Library
4130 Campus Drive
College Park Maryland 20742
301-405-9212

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