American History

The Women’s Suffrage collection documents both the national women’s rights movement and the women’s suffrage movement in Pennsylvania purchased by the Eberly Family Special Collections Library.

These materials include booklets, editorial cartoons, fliers and pamphlets documenting the work of : the Pennsylvania League of Women Voters; the National League of Women Voters (U.S.); the National Women's Trade Union League of America; the Pennsylvania Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage; and the Pennsylvania Woman Suffrage Association.

The Black History and Visual Culture digital collection consists of materials gathered from Penn State Special Collections that highlight Black life and Culture. This ongoing initiative will be integral to research, teaching, and experiential learning for the Penn State community and beyond.

These digital surrogates consist of a commemorative World War II era scrapbook created by George Hoenshel Fleming Sr., General Manager and Chief Engineer of the Pressed Steel Car Company of McKeesport, Pennsylvania. The keepsake scrapbook documents a patriotic civic event held on March 23, 1943 celebrating the company and its employees for receipt of the distinguished Army-Navy “E” Production Award.

These records consist of materials from United Steelworkers of America District 33, which coordinated local unions in the iron region of Minnesota and upper Michigan from 1942 to 1955. This collection includes local union contracts and correspondence as well as conference records, administrative files, scrapbooks, minute books, and photographs dating approximately from 1937 to 1985.

The George Medrick papers document his extensive union organizing career. Medrick emigrated to the United States from eastern Europe in 1903 and entered the mines of West Virginia the following year. In 1906, Medrick joined the United Mine Workers of America and in 1936 he became the director of the Steelworkers Organizing Committee (SWOC) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. In 1942, Medrick was appointed Director of United Steelworkers of America District 11, in Harrisburg where he remained until his retirement in 1963.

The Philip Murray papers document the organizing career of Philip Murray, including his work as the International Vice-President to the United Mine Workers of America (1920-1942), the Chairman of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (1936-1942), the International President of the United Steelworkers of America (1942-1952) and the President of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (1942-1952). These materials contain scrapbooks, correspondence, clippings, records, photographs, and artifacts relating to both Murray’s career and personal life with the bulk of materials covering the years between 1936 and 1952.

This collection contains scrapbooks collected by union organizer Harold Rasmussen. The scrapbooks document the strikes and labor disputes, as well as various conventions, of the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers of North America, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (U.S.), and the United Steelworkers of America from approximately 1933 to 1970.

The John Chorey papers consist of scrapbooks, photographs, correspondence, booklets and newsletters pertaining to the career of Pennsylvania labor organizer John Chorey. Chorey served as the first president of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Tim Workers, Tri-Boro Lodge 186 in Braddock, Pennsylvania in 1933.

The Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel, and Tin Workers of North America (AA) formed in 1876 to support industrial workers working in the United States. The AA lost membership during a series of key strikes in the early to mid-1880s, but regained strength after joining the newly formed American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1887. In 1935, Phillip Murray and the Steel Workers Organizing Committee (SWOC) largely subsumed the AA’s efforts to unionize the steel workers. At that time, the AA joined the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) and ceased to exist as an independent entity. These records document the organizing efforts of the AA from 1892 through the period following its consolidation as part of the CIO in 1935. The materials here include minute books and ledgers for the Fulton Lodge No. 46, McKee Lodge No. 161, and the Tri-boro Lodge No. 186 as well as ritual books which document the initiation process for new members of the AA.

The Howard Truman Curtiss papers document the personal and professional activities of Howard Truman Curtiss, a clergyman, organizer, and labor consultant involved in the Steel Workers Organizing Committee and later the United Steelworkers of America. Curtiss served as a staff representative and organizer for the Steel Worker Organizing Committee and eventually became the District Director for the United Steelworkers of America. The materials in Curtiss’s papers include correspondence, ledgers, and financial records from 1888-1947.