Processing the Papers of a Maryland Environmentalist, Merilyn B. Reeves

In June 2016, Merilyn B. Reeves donated a collection of personal papers and publications to the University of Maryland’s Special Collections.  Reeves was a prominent member of the environmental movement in Maryland through her involvement in the League of Women Voters. She was Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Maryland and a member of the national board, where she was in charge of the Natural Resources Portfolio. Additionally, she was President of the American? Lung Association of Maryland and on the national-level board of the American Lung Association.  She tackled environmental issues such as the clean-up of the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent River and the defense of the Clean Air and Safe Water Acts before Congress, where she testified on several occasions. More locally, Reeves was a member of the West Laurel Civic Association and she acted as a tour guide for the Piscataway Wastewater Treatment and Patuxent River Water Filtration plants.

Merilyn B. Reeves asking a question to Secretary of State Cyrus Vance at the League of Women Voters National Convention, May 1978

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The Labor Movement and Posters: Promoting Human Rights, Part 2

This is the last post in a series of blogs by the Labor Collections Team highlighting the amazing posters on display in the Hornbake Library Gallery exhibit, “For Liberty, Justice, and Equality: Unions Making History in America.” These posters encompass a wide range of human rights issues supported by the labor movement. There are nine different human rights issues that are covered in the exhibit. In Part 1 of this series, we showcased the posters in the African-American Rights, Women’s Rights, the Eight-Hour Day, and A Living Wage sections of the exhibit. This post will explore the posters in the Religious Freedom, International Workers, the Environment, and LGBTQ Rights sections, and several other posters included in the exhibit from the AFL-CIO collections.

Religious Freedom:

This poster of a mosaic mural at the Bernard Horwich Community Center in Chicago, IL was produced by the Jewish Labor Committee. The Committee was founded in the 1930s to unite the labor movement and the American Jewish community in opposition to the rise of fascism. AFL-CIO Posters, Broadsides, and Art Collection.

 

 

 

 

The Labor Movement and Posters: Promoting Human Rights, Part 1

In this series of blogs the Labor Collections Team would like to highlight the amazing posters on display in the Hornbake Library Gallery exhibit “For Liberty, Justice, and Equality: Unions Making History in America.” These posters encompass a wide range of human rights issues supported by the labor movement. There are nine different human right issues that are covered in the exhibit.  For this post we will be showcasing the posters within the African-American Rights, Women’s Rights, the Eight-Hour Day, and A Living Wage sections of the exhibit.

Mourn for the Dead, Fight for the Living: May Day Becomes International Workers’ Day

Happy International Workers’ Day! To celebrate, the Labor History Collections has put together a small exhibit in the Maryland Reading Room inside Hornbake Library to tell the story of how May Day became International Workers’ Day and its link to Labor Day.

AFL-CIO poster promoting International Workers’ Day also known as May Day 2017. You can also check out this poster in Spanish on the “What’s Next?” panel in the Labor History Collection exhibit!

April 4, 1968 – Reports and Reactions to the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot outside a Memphis hotel on April 4, 1968. As with the assassination of President Kennedy five years earlier, journalists and reporters assembled the facts as quickly as they could, scrambling to break updates to a horrified public. The reporters working for the Westinghouse News Bureau (also known as “Group W”) in Washington, D.C. were among them.

“When I Say No, I Mean No”: The Labor Movement’s Fight to Stop Sexual Harassment in the Workplace

It is the beginning of Sexual Awareness Month, which is a time to talk about this important issue, understand the problem and promote change. Sexual harassment is a form of sex discrimination that includes unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favors, and hostile, verbal, or physical conduct based on gender. It is estimated that 1 in 5 Americans have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace, which is a statistic only based on reported incidents from victims.[1] This serious issue has been in the forefront of the news lately with the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements gaining traction. However, charges of sexual harassment have not always been taken seriously.

In the Labor History Collections exhibit, “For Liberty, Justice, and Equality: Unions Making History in America,” there are several historical examples of the labor movement fighting for victims of sexual harassment, giving them a voice.

“When I say No, I mean No: How to stop sexual harassment, a handbook for unions” published by The International Union of Food and Allied Workers’ Association (IUF), 1988. This handbook was written to help unions understand their role in helping victims of sexual harassment. Come check it out at the “Union Feminism: Sisterhood is Powerful” display!

Request Special Collections Material in WorldCat!

You can now search for and request materials held in Special Collections and University Archives directly from Worldcat! This includes books and periodicals from our Rare Book, National Trust Library, Mass Media and Culture, and State of Maryland collections.

When you come across an interesting title in Worldcat and the location is is located as the Maryland Room in Hornbake Library (HBK), use the ‘Request from Special Collections’ link to request the item. You will be prompted to register for a special collections research account (don’t worry, it’s a quick process you only have to do once). Then select your date of visit, submit your request, and our staff will place it on hold for you in the reading room.

Here’s something you’ll find in Worldcat if you search for Edgar Allan Poe’s chilling tale, The Raven: