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 4. This Month in Business History
 5. Formation of the American Federation of Labor




THIS MONTH IN BUSINESS HISTORY



 * Introduction
 * JanuaryToggle Dropdown
   * The Year 2000 : Y2K
   * Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury Born
   * Alexander Hamilton, First Secretary of the Treasury Born
   * Albert Gallatin, the 4th Secretary of the Treasury Born
   * Prohibition Begins
   * Standard Oil Established
   * Labor Leader Samuel Gompers Born
 * FebruaryToggle Dropdown
   * Woolworth's Five and Dime
   * The Flint, Michigan, Sit-Down Strike
   * First Bank of the United States Chartered
   * Department of Commerce Founded
 * MarchToggle Dropdown
   * Frances Perkins became the First Female Cabinet Member
   * Production on the Sholes and Glidden Type-Writer Began
   * The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
   * Debut of the Standard & Poors 500 Index
   * Founding of the Department of Labor
   * Cesar Chavez: Labor Leader Born
   * 1933 Bank Holiday
 * AprilToggle Dropdown
   * Income Tax Day
   * Banker J. P. Morgan Born
   * The Founding of Apple Computer, Inc.
   * United States Mint Founded
   * Dolores Huerta, Labor Activist Born
   * A. Philip Randolph, Labor & Civil Rights Activist Born
 * MayToggle Dropdown
   * Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
   * Dow Jones Industrial Average First Published
   * First Fortune 500 List Published
   * Nannie Helen Burroughs Born
   * World’s First Coca-Cola was Served
 * JuneToggle Dropdown
   * CNN Launched 6/1/1980
   * Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK Destroyed on 6/1/1921
   * Fair Labor Standards Act Signed
   * Signing of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
   * Founding of the Bureau of Labor Statistics
   * Alonzo Herndon, Founder of Atlanta Life Born
   * Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) Established
   * Founding of The International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU)
   * National System of Interstate and Defense Highways Act Signed into Law
 * JulyToggle Dropdown
   * Fireworks: Beyond the Fourth of July
   * Dun & Bradstreet Founded
   * ZIP Code Introduced
   * Bretton Woods Conference & the Birth of the IMF and World Bank
   * Renewal of the Second Bank of the United States Vetoed
   * Sherman Anti-Trust Act Signed into Law
   * The Lanham Act Lays the Foundation for Modern Trademark Law
 * AugustToggle Dropdown
   * The Whiskey Rebellion
   * United Farm Workers Organizing Committee Recognized by AFL-CIO
   * Opening of the Panama Canal
   * The Bell System
   * Founding of the National Labor Union and the 1st National Call for a 8-Hour
     Work Day
   * Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters Union Formed
 * SeptemberToggle Dropdown
   * Labor Day
   * Homeowners Insurance
   * The Panic of 1873
   * Patent for the XEROX Machine Issued
   * John Merrick, Entrepreneur and Community Leader, Born
   * Patent for the Cash Register Issued
   * New York City's Independent Subway System Opened
   * Walter P. Reuther, Labor Leader, Born
 * OctoberToggle Dropdown
   * Opening of the Erie Canal
   * The Black Monday Stock Market Crash
   * Clayton Antitrust Act Enacted
   * Birth of Ybor City, the Cigar Capital of the World
 * NovemberToggle Dropdown
   * Maggie L. Walker, First Black Woman to Charter a Bank
   * Macy's Thanksgving Parade
   * Industrialist Andrew Carnegie Born
   * The Day of Two Noons
   * Hetty Green, the “Witch of Wall Street” was Born
   * Labor Activist Mother Jones Dies
   * Ida Tarbell, Author of "History of the Standard Oil Company" was Born
 * December
   * The Man Who Saved Christmas
   * The Game of Monopoly is Patented
   * Federal Reserve Act Signed
   * Cosmetic Entrepreneur Elizabeth Arden Born
   * Formation of the American Federation of Labor


BUSINESS REFERENCE: ASK A LIBRARIAN

Have a question? Need assistance? Use our online form to ask a librarian for
help.

Author:
Kelly Bennett, Business Librarian, Science & Business Reading Room

Created: December 2023

Last Updated: December 2023


FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR

Labor Leader a Voter--Samuel Gompers...Casting His Ballot. Between 1910-1924.
National Photo Company Collection. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs
Division.

The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L. or AFL) was founded on December 8,
1886. Its predecessor, the Federation of Organized Trade and Labor Unions
(FOTLU), was formed by members of the Knights of Labor (KOL) and labor leaders
including Samuel Gompers. Following the Haymarket affair on May 4, 1886, FOTLU
and trade union leaders convened in Columbus, Ohio in December of that year.
They announced the formation of the A.F. of L., with Samuel Gompers becoming its
first and longest serving president.1

In the following decades, the American Federation of Labor became the largest
federation of labor unions in the United States. Unfortunately, it largely
excluded unions with high percentages of minority workers with the notable
exception of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Also, it was not
particularly friendly toward industrial unions, leading those unions to leave
the A.F. of L. and form the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). However,
the two entities would eventually merge to form the AFL-CIO in December of 1955.


PRINT RESOURCES

The following titles link to fuller bibliographic information in the Library of
Congress Online Catalog. Links to digital content are provided when available.

 * American Federation of Labor records, 1883-1925
   Published/Created: 1883-1925
   Finding Aid
   Letterpress books containing correspondence of Samuel Gompers and William
   Green, presidents of the American Federation of Labor. Other letters are
   signed by James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank K. Foster, and John McBride.
 * Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters records, 1920-1968
   Published/Created: 1920-1968
   Finding Aid
   Part I consists of general correspondence, subject files, and personal papers
   of the brotherhood's founder, A. Philip Randolph, documenting the growth and
   functions of the union chiefly after 1940. Part II consists of correspondence
   and subject files of brotherhood officials Benjamin F. McLaurin
   (international field organizer), A. Philip Randolph (founder and president),
   and Ashley L. Totten (secretary-treasurer), and other subject files,
   financial records, and miscellaneous records.
 * American Federation of Labor: History, Encyclopedia, Reference book
   Call Number: HD8055.A5 A42
   Published/Created: 1919
   Prepared and published by authority of the 1916 and 1917 American Federation
   of Labor conventions.
 * The American Labor Movement by Samuel Gompers
   Call Number: HD8055.A5 G75 1941
   Published/Created: 1941
   An abstract of the testimony of the president of the American federation of
   labor before the United States Commission on industrial relations, in New
   York, May 21-23, 1914.
 * Rival Unionism in the United States by Walter Galenson
   Call Number: HD6508 .G3 1966
   Published/Created: 1966 [c1940]
   History of early labor unions in the United States.
 * Workers in America [2 Volumes] by Robert E. Weir
   ISBN: 9781598847185
   Published/Created: 2013
   Comprehensive reference book of major labor movements in the United States in
   two volumes.


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DIGITAL RESOURCES

The following resources created and digitized by the Library of Congress can be
used to find more information. There are also many research guides that can aid
you in your research.

 * American Federation of Labor Records
   Published/Created: 1883-1925
   The records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years
   1883-1925 and consist of letterpress volumes of correspondence of Samuel
   Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952), presidents of the
   organization, and by other officials including James Duncan, Gabriel
   Edmonston, Frank Keyes Foster, and John McBride. Comprising approximately
   172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm,
   the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters,
   bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles,
   communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising,
   boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International
   Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and
   American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.
 * American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
   (AFL-CIO) Web Archive
   Published/Created: 2002-2022
   The American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations
   (AFL-CIO) is the voluntary federation of America's unions, representing more
   than 13 million working women and men nationwide.
 * Business and Labor History: Primary Sources at the Library of Congress
   This guide highlights those special collections at the Library that would be
   of interest to researchers studying business and labor history with an
   emphasis on personal and organizations papers and related resources.
 * This Month in Business History - January - Labor Leader Samuel Gompers Born
   Samuel Gompers (Samuel Gumpertz) spent his early years as a cigar maker. The
   family immigrated to the United States in 1863 and settled in New York City.
   Father and son continued in the cigar trade and Samuel joined the Cigar
   Makers Local Union. In his mid-twenties Gompers was elected president of the
   local Cigar Makers’ International Union where he continued working his way up
   through the union ranks. In 1881, he helped found the Federation of Organized
   Trades and Labor Unions which became the American Federation of Labor (A. F.
   of L. or AFL). He became its first president and served as such for most of
   the rest of his life.
 * This Month in Business History - September - Labor Day
   The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882 at
   the behest of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union pushed other
   organizations to follow and by 1894 23 other states had adopted the holiday.
 * This Month in Business History - August - Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
   Union Formed
   The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) was founded on August 25, 1925
   in New York City. The union was led by A. Philip Randolph and was the first
   predominately African American labor union.
 * Haymarket Affair: Topics in Chronicling America
   On May 4, 1886, a bomb detonates near Haymarket Square in Chicago after
   police arrive to break up a rally in support of striking workers. This
   protest is one of a number of strikes, demonstrations, and other events held
   by workers and their supporters in Chicago from May 1-4 to advocate for an
   eight hour workday. The information in this guide focuses on primary source
   materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital
   collection Chronicling America.


INTERNET RESOURCES

The links below are for content openly available on the internet.

 * AFL-CIO External
   Official site of the AFL-CIO.
 * American Federation of Labor (University of Maryland Libraries) External
   In 2013 the AFL-CIO named the University of Maryland Libraries their official
   repository for records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), selected
   records of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), and the merged
   American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations
   (AFL-CIO). In terms of dates, it covers 1881 to 1955. More specifically it
   contains the George Meany Memorial AFL-CIO Archive which is approximately 40
   million documents and the AFL-CIO Merger Oral History Project collection. It
   also includes staff oral histories that explore the history of the 1955
   merger of the AFL and the CIO.
   A related collection also held by the university are publications from the
   United Farm Workers which includes an incomplete run (circa 1960s and 1970s)
   of the English-language edition of El Malcriado, a newspaper published by the
   UFW.
 * American Federation of Labor Records (Wisconsin Historical Society) External
   The Wisconsin Historical Society holds some records of the AFL from 1888-1955
   including some papers of Presidents Samuel Gompers and William Green as well
   as other AFL officials and departments including AFL Economist Boris
   Shishkin, American Federationist editor Florence Thorne, executive secretary
   Catherine Bauer, the Office of Information and Research, and the head of the
   Mining Department James Lord. There are also general files on federal and
   state legislation, industry and labor developments, strikes and agreements,
   etc.
 * U.S. Department of Labor: Bicentennial History of the American Worker
   E-book version of volume published in 1976 with each chapter about a
   different era and U.S. labor history.


SEARCH THE LIBRARY'S CATALOG

Additional works on this topic in the Library of Congress may be identified by
searching the Library of Congress Online Catalog under appropriate Library of
Congress subject headings. Choose the topics you wish to search from the
following list of subject headings to link directly to the Catalog and
automatically execute a search for the subject selected. Please be aware that
during periods of heavy use you may encounter delays in accessing the catalog.
For assistance in locating other subject headings that may relate to this
subject, please consult a reference librarian.

 * Labor Unions
 * American Federation of Labor
 * AFL-CIO
 * Gompers, Samuel, 1850-1924
 * Haymarket Square Riot


NOTES

 1. Weir, Robert E. (2013) Workers in America: A Historical Encyclopedia. (Santa
    Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO), p. 25. Back to text 

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 * Last Updated: May 31, 2024 12:39 PM
 * URL: https://guides.loc.gov/this-month-in-business-history
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