AFL-CIO Information Department, AFL-CIO News Cartoons
Collection
0079-LBR-RG20-004
This collection consists of original artwork created for reproduction in the AFL-CIO News from 1955 to 1984. These editorial cartoons appeared regularly in the publication and reflect a wide variety of issues important to organized labor, including jobs, health care, the right to organize, safety and health, education, political action, and equality, among others. The illustrators most represented in this collection are John Stampone and Le Baron Coakley.
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 AFL-CIO. 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.
Researchers should handle the original artwork with care.
25.00 Linear Feet
This collection consists of 1014 original artwork cartoons created for reproduction in the AFL-CIO News. These editorial cartoons appeared regularly in the publication and reflect a wide variety of issues important to organized labor, including jobs, health care, the right to organize, safety and health, education, political action, and equality, among others.
The earliest cartoons (1955-1961) were drawn by Le Baron Coakley, an artist who drew not only the AFL-CIO News, but also previously for the CIO News. His pen name was "Coak."
The majority of the cartoons (1962-1983) were drawn by John Stampone, an editorial cartoonist whose work appeared in a number of publications. His pen name was "Stam."
Additionally, there are a number of cartoons (1965-1976) by Bernard Seaman. There are also a few cartoons by illustrators who signed their names as follows: Steve Kraft; Niemi; Amadee; Auth; K. Chadwick; Ken Strobel; David Pascal; Goodsell; and McGregor.
The cartoons are in chronological order with a few exceptions, based on the original order in the boxes at the George Meany Memorial Archives.
The Information Department of the AFL-CIO transferred these records to the George Meany Memorial Archives in 1992.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.
Lynda DeLoach and Rikki Condon at the George Meany Memorial Archives initially processed these records in 2009. Sarah Springer created the finding aid in 2009. The University of Maryland Libraries received the records and the finding aid in 2013. In the fall of 2018 through winter 2019, Maya Reid foldered the cartoons in acid-free folders in the existing boxes. Maya Reid also reviewed the collection record from Eloquent Systems database and verified the information with the cartoons, recording metadata that was missing in the folder list. In 2019, Bria Parker exported and cleaned the finding aid contents from the Eloquent Systems database using OpenRefine, and finally transformed the finding aid and updated folder list into Encoded Archival Description (EAD) using a series of programmatic scripts. The finding aid was ingested into ArchivesSpace in 2019, at which point Maya Reid updated the descriptive content for accuracy. Revisions include changes to abstract notes, scope and content notes, and the creation of new collection numbers. Maya Reid also enhanced custodial histories and re-wrote collection titles to better conform to archival standards. The contents of Box 11 were rehoused into a box with dimensions closer to the cartoon sizes. One cartoon from Box 11 was moved to Box 6 due to its larger size.
Part of the Special Collections and University Archives