The National Archives and Records Administration holds records created or received by the U.S. Government on issues of labor and labor rights, including records on unions, strikes and responses, debates about women and children in the workplace, and the Government’s role in providing economic security and workplace rights. These records document and detail the struggle to define and assert workplace rights. We not only hold these records, we provide access to them. View a selection of records from the National Archives Catalog.

 

The struggle for labor rights and the fight for woman suffrage often intersected. Portions of our exhibit Rightfully Hers: American Women and the Vote look at the contributions of working women and labor organizers.

In the early 20th century, young women painted the dials of watches and clocks with radium to create glow-in-the-dark faces. Many of the women, known as Radium Girls, became horribly disfigured, and many died horrible deaths. Learn about these women in "The Radium Girls at the National Archives" and in records in our Catalog.

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 caused the deaths of 146 women and inspired reforms in labor practices. Read "A Factory Fire and Frances Perkins," and view photographs of the aftermath of the fire in the National Archives Catalog.

 

 

Papers of the Women’s Trade Union League and Its Principal Leaders, supported by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission

"From Slave Women to Free Women: Black Women's History in the Civil War Era," an article in Prologue magazine exploring women's labor after slavery.

 

The Way We Worked, a photo exhibition focusing on the history of work in America, was displayed in the Lawrence F. O'Brien Gallery of the National Archives Building in Washington, DC, from December 2005 to May 2006. Below are links to photographs and other content related to that exhibition.

 

Six-year-old berry picker. Photo by Lewis Hine.

“Labor Day, 1899" Cartoonist Clifford Berryman shows Uncle Sam bowing in respect to the figure of “Labor,” who is pictured as responsible for the nation’s prosperity.