Public Relations Team's blog

This blog post was contributed by Autumn Diaz, a student in Wayne State University's archives program in Winter 2017.

The Reuther Library holds many important historical collections, and as history inevitably repeats itself, many are more relevant than ever to current events. The Gay Liberator collection, in the space of just two compact boxes, offers a history unique to Detroit and its LGBT community. Published from 1970-1976, the Gay Liberator also reflects growing political awareness  read more »

Visit the Reuther Library's Woodcock Wing gallery now through spring 2017 for an exhibition of photographs of Detroit's Poletown by photographer Bruce Harkness.  read more »

This May, at the start of my last semester at Wayne State’s School of Library and Information Science, I began a Practicum in Digital Content Management here at the Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs. Over the last three months I have spent many hours with Series 10 of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Collection. This series, which is mostly pamphlets and handouts, needed digitization to keep it alive. Access to the series was restricted, not for inflammatory content, but because of the fragile condition of the early 20th century documents. This made me a kind of digital life support for this information rich material.  read more »

The Reuther Library is pleased to announce the digitization of over 100 reel-to-reel audio recordings related to the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee (AWOC). AWOC was chartered by the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) to organize farm workers in California. AWOC called many strikes against growers and farm labor contractors and achieved some success in raising wages of farm laborers. They merged with the National Farm Workers Association to form the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO in 1966.

These recordings, mostly from California, range from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. They include talks with farm workers, organizing meetings, documentary sound, and interviews with movement leaders.  read more »