Franklin and Penelope Rosemont Collection of IWW Publications and Ephemera, 1905-2005

Purchased from Franklin and Penelope Rosemont, 2006.

The Franklin and Penelope Rosemont Collection of IWW Publications and Ephemera is open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 5 folders at a time maximum, and items in each folder will be counted before and after delivery to the patron (Priority I).

The Franklin and Penelope Rosemont Collection of IWW Publications and Ephemera is the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Franklin and Penelope Rosemont Collection of IWW Publications and Ephemera, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

Lisa Janssen, 2006.

Chicago based labor organization.

Founded in Chicago in 1905, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW, also known as the Wobblies), holds a special place in local and U.S. history. Locally, its prominence in Chicago labor and free speech history is second to none. With its strong links to the “Chicago Idea” labor radicalism of the Haymarket era, the IWW was an important influence on the Chicago Federation of Labor in the 1910's and 1920s, and a major force in the development of the workers’ education movement.

From 1905 through the 1930s the IWW was also a significant Chicago printer and publisher. Its printing facility in the large IWW building at 1001 West Madison Street printed large quantities of IWW books, pamphlets, newspapers, magazines, convention proceedings, sheet music, leaflets, posters, stickers, and books. Not surprisingly, this IWW printing office was long recognized as the most productive Left press in the country. The later IWW print shop at 3333 West Belmont, though smaller, also had an impressive output.

During the first three decades of the last century, Chicago was the nation’s largest industrial city; the nation’s hobo (migratory worker) capital; and the vital center of the U.S. labor movement. As the leading proponent of industrial (rather than craft) unionism, the IWW's impact on the broader labor movement was large and ongoing. The union was renowned from the start for its profoundly democratic character and militant egalitarianism; at a time when most AFL unions admitted white males only, and discouraged the foreign-born, the IWW welcomed African Americans, women, and immigrants from all over. And when the AFL insisted that migratory workers were “unorgan-izable,” the IWW proceeded to organize them by the many tens of thousands.

The IWW’s many strikes, the General Electric strike in Schenectady, 1906 (the first “sitdown strike”), the Lawrence strike of 1912, involving 25,000 strikers from over sixteen language groups; the widespread May Day Strike of 1923, and the Colorado Coal Strike of 1927, were noted for their innovative strategies, and are still recognized as major landmarks in our nation’s labor history.

The IWW international headquarters remained in Chicago throughout its most active years (1905-1940) and several decades beyond. Even when headquarters moved away in the early 1990s, the IWW’s Chicago Branch, one of its more sizeable affiliates, stayed on, and remains active to this day.

Pamphlets, fliers, periodicals, books, convention minutes and proceedings, stickers, song books, official documents, and other ephemera created by the IWW and other related organizations and members.

The collection contains many of the IWW’s essential documents from its most crucial years, 1905 through 1935, as well as some of its later literature. Included are classic IWW pamphlets and magazines, volumes of convention minutes, and several editions of the IWW’s famous “Little Red Song Book.” Many of the publications are by well known labor authors such as Eugene Debs, Mary Marcy, Ralph Chaplin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn and William Trautman. In addition to the publications printed in Chicago, many of the pamphlets are in foreign languages such as Finnish, Hungarian, and Spanish, printed in IWW print shops in Duluth, Minnesota and Cleveland. The collection also contains several of the union’s numerous, varied and colorful dues and assessment stamps, buttons, stickers knows as "silent agitators," along with a wide range of other Wobbly paraphernalia. Materials pertaining to notable IWW members such as Joe Hill and Carlos Cortez and IWW related organizations round out the picture of the labor environment of the first half of the 20th century.

Papers are organized in the following series:

Title Box Series 1: Publications Boxes 1-5 Series 2: Periodicals Boxes 6-8 Series 3: Song Books and Sheet Music Box 9 Series 4: Official Documents and Organizational Items Boxes 10-11 Series 5: IWW Member Subject Files Box 12 Series 6: IWW Related Materials Box 12 Series 7: Council for Union Democracy Box 12 Series 8: Photographs Box 13 Series 9: Artifacts Box 14

• Names
  • Brundage, Slim, 1903-1990
  • Chaplin, Ralph, 1887-1961
  • Cortez, Carlos, 1923-2005
  • Council for Union Democracy.
  • Debs, Eugene V., (Eugene Victor), 1855-1926
  • Haywood, Big Bill, 1869-1928
  • Hill, Joe, 1879-1915
  • Industrial Workers of the World. General Defense Committee.
  • Industrial Workers of the World.
  • Marcy, Mary, 1877-1922
  • Rosemont, Franklin
  • Rosemont, Penelope
  • St. John, Vincent, 1876-1929
  • Thompson, Fred, 1900-1987
  • Woodruff , Abner E.
• Subject
  • Chicago
  • Clubs and Organizations
  • Direct action
  • Labor literature -- United States
  • Labor movement -- United States -- History -- 20th century
  • Labor union locals
  • Labor unions -- Jurisdictional disputes
  • Labor unions -- United States -- History -- 20th century
  • Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Printing -- Illinois -- History
  • Radicalism -- United States -- History -- 20th century
  • Social Action
  • Strikes and lockouts -- United States
  • Working class writings
• Geographic CoverageChicago (Ill.) -- History -- 20th century