Labor Archives & Research Center

About

LARC is open to the public and free of charge

Few regions can rival the rich, lively labor history of the San Francisco Bay Area. This history is preserved in primary source and vintage history materials at the Labor Archives and Research Center (LARC). Founded in 1985 by trade union leaders, historians, labor activists and university administrators, the Labor Archives is a unit of the J. Paul Leonard Library at San Francisco State University.

Location

The Labor Archives and Research Center is located near the North West edge of San Francisco State University campus. LARC shares a building with the Sutro Library. Getting to LARC is easy by car and public transportation. Parking is available.

Collections

Description

The Labor Archives collection includes materials from the counties surrounding San Francisco Bay, including Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara.

More than 6,000 feet of primary source material is available for research. From the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, a wide scope of Bay Area labor activity is represented.

Many unions have made the Labor Archives the official repository for their historical records -- minutes, office correspondence, membership files, publications and contracts. Labor leaders, attorneys, arbitrators, and rank-and-file workers have donated their personal papers.

Personal memorabilia, photographs, ephemera, and oral histories document the lives and stories of working men and women. Visual material, in addition to photographs, includes cartoons, banners, posters, prints, handbills, picket signs, and buttons.

Holdings List

The Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) Listing of Collections is at this site. A printed copy is also available on request.

Selected Images

Selected Images from the Photograph Collection are available for viewing.

Access

A portion of the Labor Archives collection is stored off-site and may take one to two days to retrieve. For inquiries, please call or e-mail.

Events

No events scheduled at this time.

Exhibits

graphic: Kim Munson

Look for the Union Label: A Celebration of Union Logos and Emblems Online Exhibit by Jeff Rosen and Susan Parker Sherwood This collection of over 150 images surveys union labels, their history, and related artifacts. American Union labels evolved from the seals and coats of arms of European craft unions and were a great source of tradition and pride. Beginning as early as 1880, the union label movement became an important economic tool as organized workers looked for ways to support union jobs and to protest unfair working conditions through tactics other than strikes.

 

Photograph: Brusati	Spanning the Gate September 4 - January 31, 2008. A photographic essay on display in the J. Paul Leonard Library (1st floor) depicting the building of the Golden Gate Bridge, using historic photographs from the Labor Archives and Research Center Collection.

 

Poster: Andrew Zermeno

Cultivating Creativity: The Arts and the Farm Workers' Movement During the 1960s and '70s Online Exhibit LARC is pleased to announce its first online exhibit. Farm workers and the world of art? It may not seem to be a natural pairing, yet the migrant farm workers’ movement of the 1960s and ‘70s generated artistic symbols of such iconic power that they not only fixed a small struggling union’s (the United Farm Workers) plight in the American public consciousness, but also helped launch a new style of Chicano art.

Services Provided

• Research assistance related to the collection
• Exhibits which use archival resources to illustrate the activities, themes and issues important in the lives of working men and women and their organizations.
• Photocopying: Materials from the Labor Archives' collections are non-circulating. In most cases, photocopying and photographic reproduction services are available.
• Reading room

SFSU Student Essay Contest 2008-2009

 

Students are encouraged to submit an historical paper, journalistic article, oral history with analytical introduction, photographic essay, short story, memoir, or poem.

Deadline: All entries must be received by 5 pm, January 27, 2009. The winners will be honored at the 23nd Anniversary party of the Labor Archives and Research Center held in February, 2009. Contest Flier pdf

Mailing Address

For information on holdings, visit the Labor Archives on Winston Drive or send request to:

480 Winston Drive
San Francisco, CA 94132
Telephone: 415 564-4010
Fax: 415 564-3606
Electronic mail: larc@sfsu.edu

Newsletter

LARC Newsletters (2002-2008)