The Labor Movement: Sources

For this topic about labor unions, I’ve found a variety of sources ranging from first person sources from newspapers to general websites and reference sources. I feel like for my paper, primary sources are quite important especially since one of the subjects I am studying, Lewis Hine, was alive until 1940, and having a quotation from him would make my paper more potent.

One particular newspaper article I’ve found is from the NY Times, which follows and analyzes the timeline of Hine’s photography has been very helpful in my search for articles. The article emphasizes that his pictures evoked different feelings as compared to most other photographers. For instance, others’ photos would show the strength and beauty of the machine while Hine would show how important a worker and his or her work would be interacting. What’s important to note is that he made the workers human and made people realized factory workers had skill and were real people. In the article, the author references that “Hine seems to be quietly asking: ‘Have these workers been made faceless by the machine?'”

I found this source simply by searching New York Times Lewis Hine because I figured that the New York Times had covered many stories about him in the past since he’s an important American figure in the labor war.

As for a reference source, when looking for information on the other part of the labor war (the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire), I used a reference source I found by searching Google. I found a pretty general description on Cornell University’s webpage. The next step I will take is to find newspaper articles on the event and responses through the USC libraries portal.

I haven’t encountered many problems finding information as both of my subjects are relatively well-known.