The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has contributed $2 million to The George Washington University to create an endowed archivist position at GW and establish an exhibition of its archives for public display to enhance research on 20th century U.S. labor relations. The Teamsters archives, which date back to the early 1900s, also will reside at GW on permanent loan. It is among the nation’s preeminent collections of primary labor movement documents. The funding is the first part of a comprehensive Teamsters education and archives project in cooperation with the University.

The archives include presidential papers from James R. Hoffa and James P. Hoffa, autographed political cartoons from the early 20th century, and several hundred photographs and memos from the labor and civil rights movements, such as a photo of Jimmy Hoffa with Martin Luther King, Jr., and telegrams from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The archives also contain a wire recorder, circa 1930s, believed to be one of the few remaining in the world. 

The archivist position will be responsible for cataloging the archives and acquiring additional important historical labor documents through GW’s Gelman Library System. These initiatives will arrange the Teamsters archives, making public never-before-seen documents, letters, and photographs and provide access by researchers and labor history professionals to these records.

The University also will begin a collection of valuable materials from all aspects of U.S. labor history that will benefit labor studies in history, law, political science, business, and other academic disciplines. GW plans to collect primary documents, photographs, and recordings from other labor groups. In growing its U.S. labor special collection, the University will remain intellectually neutral, providing researchers with a wealth of information previously unavailable to the public.

The Teamsters Union was established in 1903 and represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Gelman Library’s Special Collections Department collects, preserves, and makes accessible primary resources and rare materials to researchers within and outside of the GW community. The collection includes more than 25,000 linear feet of archives, books, images, manuscripts, maps, microforms, directories, theses, dissertations, faculty publications, periodicals, and ephemera. The University houses the archives from PNC (Riggs) Bank and of journalist Jack Anderson, among others.

For the full press release, please go to: http://www.gwu.edu/~Emedia/pressrelease.cfm?ann_id=26008

Greg D. Kubiak, Board Chair of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, DC (GMCW), announced today that an agreement has been reached between GMCW and The George Washington University to allow the University’s Gelman Library to collect, preserve and make accessible the Chorus’s archives as part of the library’s Gay and Lesbian Collections. “The GMCW board’s approval of this agreement was reached this spring after meeting with Gelman Library officials,” said Mr. Kubiak. “The GMCW Archives will offer a great resource for scholars, researchers or anyone interested in local GLBT history,” he continued, “while providing a secure home for the Chorus’s papers and other materials. The women and men of GMCW are honored to have their history included in the Gelman Library Special Collections.” The Chorus’s archives, including Board of Directors’ minutes and official documentation, financial and tax statements, publications, performance and promotional materials, concert programs, membership rosters, correspondence, newsletters, newspaper articles and clippings, video and audio recordings, and other archival material, will be transferred to Gelman Library this summer.

Steve Mandeville-Gamble, Head of Special Collections at Gelman Library, added: “With the generous donation of their organization’s records to the Gelman Library, GMCW has ensured that a vital voice of the cultural and social fabric of Washington, DC will be preserved and made available to this and future generations. These records document how the gay community of DC not only withstood adversity but also did so with its head held high and with a creative rejection of the intolerance that it encountered. This response ultimately lead to a greater acceptance of — and respect for — the GLBT community as a whole.” The official contract signing between the Chorus and the Library took place on June 28, 2007, at 11 AM in the Kiev Room (#710) of Gelman Library, 2130 H Street NW, Washington, DC 20052. June 28th is significant in that it is the 26th anniversary of the Chorus’s founding as well as the 38th anniversary of New York City’s Stonewall Riots — a pivotal moment in the U.S. GLBT rights movement. Closely aligned is the gay choral movement, as evidenced by GMCW’s mission — to entertain through excellent musical performance, to affirm the place of Gay people in society and to educate about the Gay experience. Signing the contract for GMCW was Kathy McGee, Board of Directors Secretary, who was accompanied by C. Michael Baker, Jack Gerard, Steve Herman, and Phil Rogerson — founding and continuing members of the Chorus since 1981.”

George Washington University President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg publicly thanked Mike Harreld, Regional President of PNC Bank, for the generous donation by PNC Bank to GWU of the PNC-Riggs National Bank Records at a gala reception held by the Gelman Library System on March 15, 2007 from 4:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. Representatives from PNC Bank, the George Washington University administration, the Gelman Library System, and the press were in attendance.

Tyler Anbinder, Chair of the History Department at GWU, also spoke about the critically important nature of the Riggs National Bank Records for historians doing research into 19th Century Banking; Anbinder spoke about how this collection is one of the three most important collections of U.S. Bank history preserved anywhere in the world.

Image courtesy of Jessica McConnell, GWU Staff Photographer