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Primary sources for historical research: U.S. economic, business and labor history

This guide lists important collections of primary sources on U.S. economic, business and labor history held by the Princeton University Library. It covers microform, print and digital collections. Microforms listed in this guide are housed in Firestone Library Microforms Service on C floor. Printed guides to these collections are usually also housed in Microforms Service and have call numbers beginning "FilmB." A few collections held by Princeton Theological Seminary or by the Center for Research Libraries are also listed in this guide. Please consult a librarian for help if you would like to use these collections. For further information, please see Guides to primary sources for historical research: introduction.

Table of Contents

On the slave trade and plantations, see also Primary sources for historical research: African-American History and the Antebellum South.

Labor movement records

Minutes of the Executive Council of the American Federation of Labor [microform]
Microfilm 09605 41 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD8055.A5 M568
Consists of records of the AFL. The collection documents not only the activities of the AFL, and the relations of the federated unions, but also labor issues in general. Online guide: http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/group.asp?g=215
American Federation of Labor records [microform]
Microfilm 05599 55 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD8055.A5 S72 1985
Consists of material from the "strikes and agreements" file, 1898-1953, which documents the AFL's relations with local unions throughout the U.S. and in many industries.
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations. AFL and CIO pamphlets, 1889-1955
Available through interlibrary loan from the Center for Research Libraries. See Borrowing Microforms from the Center for Research Libraries for more information.
[19 reels]
American Federation of Labor records [microform]: the Samuel Gompers era
Microfilm 11807 144 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD8055.A5W57
Consists of records of the AFL, including minutes and letterbooks, and the files of the office of the President. Most of the material dates from the first quarter of the 20th century. On Gompers, see http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00278.html
Samuel Gompers and the American Federation of Labor. Collection 2, American Federation of Labor and the unions [microform]: national and international union records from the Samuel Gompers era
Microfilm 11806 5 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD8055.A5 A68
Consists of correspondence between Gompers, president of the AFL, and other national and international unions (e.g. the United Mine Workers and the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union) plus additional records documenting those unions. On Gompers, see http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00278.html
Samuel Gompers letterbooks 1883-1924; William Green letterbooks, 1925
Available through interlibrary loan from the Center for Research Libraries. See Borrowing Microforms from the Center for Research Libraries for more information.
" This set includes chiefly the outgoing correspondence of Samuel Gompers, first President of the American Federation of Labor and his successor, William Green, for 1925. Gompers' letterbooks ( aka copybooks) document a wide variety of labor issues and include correspondence with local and national organizers, heads of American foreign trade unions, members of Congress and U.S. president." [343 reels]
State labor proceedings, AFL, CIO and AFL-CIO conventions, 1885-1974
Available through interlibrary loan from the Center for Research Libraries. See Borrowing Microforms from the Center for Research Libraries for more information. Printed guide: Industrial Relations Library [Firestone] HD8055.A6 F564 1975
" This microfiche edition of some 2,000 state convention proceedings summarizes unnion deliberations and includes officers' and financial reports, resolutions, elections of officers, and executive council minutes. Organized labor's attitudes toward a wide variety of political and social issues are well documented in these proceedings." [3,693 fiches]
American Bureau of Industrial Research [microform]: manuscript collections on the early American labor movement, 1862-1908
Microfilm 05861 12 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD6508.A53
Consists of material collected by the ABIR and archived at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Includes manuscripts, pamphlets and articles documenting the activities of late nineteenth-century labor leaders and labor organizations, including the Knights of Labor.
Department of Justice investigative files [microform]. Part I. The Industrial Workers of the World
Microfilm 06455 15 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD8055 .D47
Consists of material from Record Group 60, U.S. Department of Justice, the National Archives, documenting federal investigations into the IWW, a radical labor organization that advocated a revolution against capitalism. Also documents public opinion of the IWW.
FBI file on Cesar Chavez and United Farm Workers [microform]
Microfilm 11870 2 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD6509.C48 F25 1996
Materials from the FBI file on Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers and activist for social justice for Mexican-American immigrants and migrant workers. This material is also available in a digital edition athttp://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/chavez.htm. For a brief biography of Chavez, see http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-01259.html.
FBI file on John L. Lewis [microform]
Microfilm 11817 2 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD6509.L4 F24
Materials from the FBI file on John L. Lewis, labor organizer and president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920-1960. For a brief biography of Lewis, see http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00412.html
Southern Tenant Farmers' Union papers, 1934-1970 [microform]
Microfilm 06126 60 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms Z7164.T7S56
The STFU was organized in response to the plight of Southern sharecroppers and small farmers displaced by the New Deal. It came to represent not only black and white Southern tenant farmers, but farm workers in general. The papers document labor conditions on Southern farms, and the political, legal and advocacy activities of the union.

U.S. government records

U.S. Commission on Industrial Relations, 1912-1915 [microform]
Microfilm 05615 16 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD6971.S34
From RG 174, Department of Labor, National Archives. The Commission was charged with investigating "the general condition of labor" in the United States. See http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/174.html
President's Mediation Commission, 1917-1918 [microform]
Microfilm 05613 3 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD5504.S34 1986
Consists of material from Record Group 174, Department of Labor. The Commission was established as a response to strikes that affected the war effort, and to public anti-union activism. See http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/174.html#174.6.2
Papers of the National War Labor Board, 1918-1919 [microform]
Microfilm 05614 22 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms KF3444.A75S34
The establishment of the War Labor Board was the outcome of the Mediation Commission (see above). The Board was given authority to oversee labor disputes, and the papers consist primarily of case reports.
Black workers in the era of the great migration, 1916-1925 [microform]
Microfilm 05597 25 reels Printed guide: none
Consists of materials from the National Archives that document conditions in the South and the North during the early 20th century, when many African Americans migrated from the rural South to the urban North. Online guide: http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/group.asp?g=207
Strike files of the U.S. Department of Justice [microform]
Microfilm 09822 20 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD5324 .U547
Consists of material from Record Group 60, U.S. Department of Justice, the National Archives, documenting the federal reponse to strikes. Includes correspondence from business leaders, labor leaders, and the general public, in addition to federal documents. See http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/060.html
Records of the Women's Bureau of the Department of Labor, 1918-1965 [microform]
Microfilm 10548 23 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD6095 .R426
The Women's Bureau was established to investigate and improve conditions for women working outside the home. The collection include reports, surveys, and articles written by Bureau staff. See http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/086.html
New Deal agencies and black America in the 1930s [microform]
Microfilm 05473 25 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms E185.61.L47
The materials in this collection were drawn from a number of record groups in the National Archives, and document the experiences of African Americans in the workforce in the 1930s.
New Deal economic policies [microform]
Microfiche 1604 476 microfiches Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HC106.3 .N482
Consists of congressional, presidential and Supreme Court material documenting the New Deal from inception through implementation.
Records of the Committee on Fair Employment Practices [microform]: Division of Review and Analysis : part 1, Racial tension file, 1943-1945
Microfilm 11991 9 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms [in process]
Consists of material from Record Group 228, National Archives. See http://www.archives.gov/research/guide-fed-records/groups/228.html.
Records of the U.S. Department of Labor, 1961-1963 [microform]
Microfilm 11856 70 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD8072.5 .G853 1990z
Records of the Department of Labor during the Kennedy administration. Issues addressed include unemployment compensation, labor disputes, and the amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The originals are held in the Kennedy Presidential Library.
National economy under President Johnson [microform]: administrative histories
Microfilm 09659 9 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HC106.6 .N374
Consists of materials from the Johnson Presidential Library on a variety of economic issues. Online guide: http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/group.asp?g=154
War on poverty, 1964-1968 [microform]: selections from the holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library
Microfilm 05645 41 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HC110.P63S34

Consists of White House central files (16 reels) from the Johnson administration and records of the President's National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty, 1966-1967 (25 reels).

United States v. AT&T [microform]: court documents, 1974-1984
Microfilm 05636 30 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms KF2849.A5 U547
Consists of the court documents from the landmark antitrust case, which ended the AT&T monopoly on telephone service in the U.S.

International trade

Reports and summary proceedings of the International Monetary Fund, 1946-1974 [microform]
Microfilm 10564 6 reels Printed guide: none
 
Japan - U.S. semiconductor cases [microform]
Microfiche 818 382 microfiches Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HF1456.5.J3J37
" Reproduces in their entirety the files of the semiconductor cases filed before the United States International Trade Commission, the International Trade Administration, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative" and resolved in 1986.
Multinational corporations, OPEC, cartels, foreign investment, and technology transfer [microform]
Microfilm 10634 53 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD2755.5 .M847
This collection comprises studies prepared by a variety of government and non-governmental organizations to inform U.S. policy making, 1971-1988. Online guide: http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/group.asp?g=163
International trade [microform]. Special studies
Microfilm 10636 61 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HF1379 .I575
This collection comprises studies prepared by a variety of government and non-governmental organizations to inform U.S. policy making, 1971-2003. Online guide: http://www.lexisnexis.com/academic/upa_cis/group.asp?g=162

Business records

Minute books of the American Chamber of Commerce of the port of Liverpool, 1801-1908 [microform]
Microfilm 00198 3 reels Printed guide: none
The Chamber was an English association founded to promote trade between Great Britain and the United States.
Papers; materials relating to the Mississippi Trading Co., 1874-8, in the Library of the Co-operative Union, Manchester
Microfilm 00161 4 reels Printed guide: none
Records of the Mississippi Valley Trading Company, which was established to promote trade between Great Britain and the United States.
Warner Bros. archive [microform]
Microfiche 1541 1587 microfiches Printed guide: uncataloged; at end of guides in Firestone Microforms
 

Other sources

British emigrant guides and pamphlets, 1819-1870
Microfilm 02693 2 reels Printed guide: none
Microform edition of books and pamphlets in various British libraries. (Note: these are not all included in the Goldsmith's-Kress collection.)
Recessions, depressions, and economic panics in American history: collection of sources [microform]
Microfilm 05484 7 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HC103.R42
"Gathers together and publishes ... the major documentary, investigative, and narrative sources pertaining to economic disturbances throughout American history."
Americans for Democratic Action papers, 1932-1965
Microfilm 05623 142 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms E740.5.A42
The ADA is a liberal advocacy organization founded in 1947.
Pamphlets in American History: Group III: Cooperative Societies
Microfiche 898 411microfiches Printed guide: E179 .P35
Cooperative Societies (CS1-390) "documents the cooperative ownership movement as it began in the United States in the 19th century. There is a great deal of material on workers' co-ops formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries."
Pamphlets in American History: Group III: Finance
Microfiche 898 2069 microfiches Printed guide: E179 .P35
Finance (F1-2011) "gives a history of 19th and early 20th-century discussion on such topics as bimetallism versus monometallism, banks and currency, state banks and national banks, the Federal Reserve System, taxation, and bankruptcy."
Pamphlets in American History: Group III: Socialism
Microfiche 898 712 microfiches Printed guide: E179 .P35
Socialism (S1-689) "includes numerous documents published by the Socialist Labor Party and the United States Socialist Party."
Records of the National Negro Business League [microform]
Microfilm 10600 14 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HD2425 .R426
Consists of annual conference proceedings, letters and business records of the National Negro Business League (1901-1923). The NNBL was founded to promote the "commercial, agricultural, educational, and industrial advancement" of African Americans.
Papers of Eugene V. Debs, 1834-1945 [microform]
Microfilm 06818 21 reels Printed guide: Firestone Microforms HX84.D3 D42
Consists of the papers (correspondence, speeches, and published writings) of Eugene Debs, labor leader. On Debs, see http://www.anb.org/articles/06/06-00148.html