LABOR ARCHIVES AND COLLECTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The establishment of archival institutions whose primary objective is to collect and preserve the records of labor unions, labor organizations and the personal papers of labor leaders and workers is a relatively recent development in the U.S. and Canada. The National Archives and Record Administration established in 1934 has extensive public records relating to government and labor, as do a number of state archival programs. However, for the most part, up to 1950, collections relating to the labor movement were not given priority by the major archival institutions which concentrated their collecting priorities on the "white male elite" in the U.S. The 1960s witnessed a change in this emphasis, resulting in the establishment of new archival programs devoted to specialized subject areas such as immigration, social welfare, women, minorities, native American Indians, and urban America. Several international unions have established archival programs to preserve their own records, rather than placing them in an archival institution. In addition to new labor archives programs, existing archives have expanded their labor holdings since 1982.