LABOR HISTORY RESOURCES AT THE OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

The Ohio Historical Society (OHS) began the Ohio Labor History Project in 1975 to locate, inventory, acquire, preserve, and provide access to labor union records and personal papers of Ohio labor leaders and to conduct oral history interviews. Initial funding came from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Ohio American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the Labor Education Research Services of the Ohio State University at Columbus and OHS. Since 1979 the Society's manuscripts department, through continuing support from the Ohio General Assembly, has expanded the collections and conducted extensive research into the history of Ohio labor. The majority of collections at OHS are of local unions in the central Ohio area, but district and regional headquarters for many internationals are located in Columbus and larger central labor bodies also are included. The Ohio AFL-CIO Records for the years 1922-1984 cover nearly all aspects of organized labor in the state, including material on the important defeat of the right-to-work campaign in 1958. The Columbus-Franklin County AFL-CIO, Newark Area AFL-CIO Council, and the Columbus-Franklin County Building and Construction Trades Council records also are at OHS.