TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Descriptive Summary

Biographical Note

Scope and Contents

Arrangement

Restrictions

Administrative Information

Related Material

Index Terms

Select Bibliography

Detailed Description of the Collection

Series 1: Knights of Labor 1864-1924

Series 2: Immigration and Labor, 1883-1930

Series 3: Black Diamond Anthracite Coal Company, 1889-1909

Series 4: Personal Papers, 1866-1937

Series 5: Printed Material, ca. 1870-1937

Series 6: Miscellaneous Files, 1886-1937

Series 7: Scrapbooks, 1873-1904

Series 8: Photographs, n.d.

Series 9: Mayor of Scranton Administrative Records, 1872 (1877-1883) 1916

Series 10: Memorabila, Artifacts, and Antique Books n.d.

Terence Vincent Powderly

An inventory of the Terence Vincent Powderly Papers at The American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives

Mailing Address: The Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. 20064

Telephone: 202-319-5065

Email: archives@mail.lib.cua.edu

URL: http://libraries.cua.edu/achrcua/index.html

Biographical Note

Terence Vincent Powderly (1849-1924), labor leader and public servant, was the eloquent though flawed leader of the American Labor movement during the struggles of the late 19th century, specifically during his tenure as head of the fledgling Knights of Labor, 1879-1893. He was a committed Irish nationalist, serving as a member of Clan Na Gael and the Irish Land League. He was also a dedicated public servant, on both the local and federal level, with three terms as Mayor of Scranton, 1878-1884, and a reform-minded career in the U.S. Bureau of Immigration, 1897-1921, and the U.S. Department of Labor, 1921-1924. In these varied positions he was often photographed and many of these photos survive as part of his archival papers at The Catholic University of America (CUA) in Washington, DC. An aspect of his life not well known is that by the turn of the twentieth century, and over the age of 50, he had become an avid photographer. Several thousand photos, dating primarily from 1902 to 1921, also survive as part of the Powderly Papers and reflect a variety of subjects reflecting social, economic, and political life. Together, the photographs of and taken by Powderly are a rich resource documenting life in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era.

Powderly's parents were Irish born Terence Powderly and Madge Walsh. According to their son's autobiography, they were married in Ireland in 1826 and Terence soon found himself imprisoned in Trim Jail, County Meath, for trespassing on an English Lord's estate and shooting a hare. After his liberation, he resolved to leave Ireland, stating to his wife "Let us leave this damn country and go to America where a man may own himself and a gun, too, if he wants to." In 1827 they arrived in Montreal, Canada, and eventually settled in what became Carbondale, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania. Terence Vincent Powderly, the eleventh of twelve children, was born there on 23 January 1849. With seven brothers and four sisters, there was little opportunity for more than a rudimentary education. At age 13, he became a switchman for the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and apprenticed for three years, 1866-1869, as a machinist to James Dickson. After working for Dickson, he went on to work for the Pennsylvania Coal Company and the Lackawanna & Western Railroad of Scranton, PA. The Long Strike and mine explosions in Avondale, Pennsylvania in 1869 proved to be major influences on his life. He joined the International Union of Machinists and Blacksmiths in 1871 and later became President of the local chapter. The Depression of 1873 and his union activities led to his dismissal resulting in his traveling throughout the Midwest and Canada looking for work. This process was made more difficult because he was placed on a black list of union agitators. In 1872, Powderly married Hannah Dever, who died in 1901. Their only known child was a baby girl born on 16 December 1875 and dead just three days later. In his diary he stated "Woke up at five o'clock found my little darling (Hannah) getting along very well but the baby was dead. I hoped it would live."

Powderly also became involved in Scranton politics and became President of the Greenback-Labor Club in 1876. From 1878 to 1884, he served three terms as the city's progressive mayor who established a board of health and a municipal sewage system. He also worked for legislation against adulterated foods and for meat inspection. In 1876, while working in nearby Scranton, he was admitted to Local Assembly 88 of the Order of the Knights of Labor. He soon organized an assembly of machinists and became Master Workman. In 1877, he was elected Corresponding Secretary of District Assembly No. 5. He was elected Grand Worthy Foreman in January of 1879, followed in September by election to the top post of Grand (later General) Master Workman, a position to which he was re-elected annually until his resignation in 1893. After leaving the mayor's office, Powderly devoted his energy to the administration of the Knights of Labor which was beset with a divisive internal struggle. On one side was the trade unionist faction seeking higher wages and better working conditions by the use of strikes and boycotts while Powderly and his supporters advocated the use of these measures only as a last resort and after exhausting efforts to educate and convince management. The abortive Southwest Strike of 1886 caused greater division and resentment against Powderly, who had called off the strike. The rival American Federation of Labor (AFL), under Samuel Gompers, took advantage of this as many dissatisfied Knights defected. Eventually, Powderly's removal was arranged by a faction under his protégé and General Secretary-Treasurer, John William Hayes. Perhaps Powderly's greatest achievement while leading the knights, greatly aided by Cardinal James Gibbons, was to bring about reconciliation between the labor movement and the Roman Catholic Church which had hitherto distrusted and disapproved of labor organizations due to their secretive and ritualistic activities.

After his departure from the Knights of Labor, he studied law and was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1894. That same year, he became a member of the Central Republican Club of Scranton and, in 1896, campaigned strongly for William McKinley. As a reward, Powderly was appointed Commissioner General of Immigration in 1897 though AFL opposition delayed his Senate confirmation until the following year. As Commissioner-General, he was reform minded and established a commission to investigate conditions on Ellis Island that resulted in eleven firings. Unfortunately, in 1902, his rivals were able to convince the new president, Theodore Roosevelt, to remove him from office. Following an investigation, Powderly was reinstated in 1906 as Special Immigration Inspector. He went to Europe to study the causes of European immigration and issued a report which advocated that prospective immigrants should be selected in Europe and more evenly distributed across the United States after arrival. In 1907, he was appointed Chief of the Division of Information of the Bureau of Immigration, a post he held until 1921 when he was appointed a member of the bureau's Board of Review. From 1921 until his death on 24 June 1924, he also served as a Commissioner of Conciliation with the Department of Labor.

He was also a world traveler, amateur photographer, and author of Thirty Years of Labor (1889) and his posthumous memoirs, The Path I Trod (1940). He died in Washington, DC, on 24 June 1924. American labor historians have dismissed Powderly and the Knights as relics of the utopian traditions of the antebellum years which were unsuited to the economic realities of the Gilded Age, especially in comparison with the rival American Federation of Labor (AFL) with its more apolitical craft unionism. Powderly was charged with being sensitive, vain, and naive. Recent studies of the Knights have transformed the view of them into that of an authentic working-class organization with a convincing critique of industrial capitalism. This has helped make the case that Powderly was not a pusillanimous utopian but a worthy if somewhat flawed hero who articulated the collective progressive vision of the working masses in the face of the inhumanity of the industrial capitalist system. In 1999, Powderly was honored as an inductee into the U.S. Department of Labor's Hall of Fame, joining figures such as rival Samuel Gompers and friend Mary Harris "Mother" Jones.

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Scope and Contents

The papers of Terence Vincent Powderly document his impact on American history and consist largely of his official correspondence as General Master Workman of the Knights of Labor, 1879-1893, as well as his tenure as an official for both the Immigration and Labor departments, 1897-1924, and Mayor of Scranton, 1878-1884. In addition, there is personal correspondence, photographs, memorabilia, legal and financial records. The bulk of the collection was microfilmed in 1975 and organized into eight series as follows: Knights of Labor, 1864-1924; Immigration and Labor, 1883-1930; Black Diamond Anthracite Coal Company, 1889-1909; Personal Papers, 1869-1937; Printed Matter, 1882-1898; Miscellaneous Files, 1886-1937; Scrapbooks, 1873-1904; and Photographs, ca. 1865-1916. The microfilm edition of the Powderly papers is available in many libraries and the Guide to the Microfilm Edition (1975), edited by John A. Turcheneske and incorporating the work of Jonathan Garlock, is particularly valuable in its content listing of the microfilm reels. Staff at the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives of The Catholic University of America (CUA) prepared a corresponding box list, with both listings incorporated below. The non-microfilmed material is generally a parallel and more extraneous assemblage that roughly reflects the structure imposed on the bulk of the papers, but including two additional series: Series 9, Mayor of Scranton Administrative Records, 1872(1877-1883)1916 and, Series 10, Memorabilia and Artifacts, undated. This finding aid is presented not as a finished product but as an effort to make the collection more accessable even though a complete folder listing is not yet available.

Series 1, Knights of Labor, 1864-1924, is divided into five parts consisting of correspondence, constitutions, business records, proceedings, and printed material. Subseries 1.1, Correspondence, 1864-1924, is filed chronologically with both incoming letters and 69 volumes of letterpress copy books of outgoing letters. This correspondence is a window into the activities of the Knights in regard to such issues as education, the eight-hour workday, and strikes. In addition, there is information on conflicts and other difficulties like Powderly's view on the role of trade unions and especially the 1893 power struggle which resulted in his resignation. Subseries 1.2, Constitutions and Bylaws, ca. 1870-1900, has printed and incomplete constitutions, including revisions, for the local and district assemblies, filed chronologically by assembly number, as well as the General Assembly, filed chronologically. Subseries 1.3, Business Records, 1876(1876-1893)1915, has microfilmed material including minutes of Local Assembly 222 of Scranton, 1876-1880, and expense accounts, 1888-1892. Material not microfilmed consists of cash books, check books, journal, ledgers, and receipts. Subseries 1.4, Proceedings, 1876-1892, has incomplete and mostly printed proceedings of various assemblies. Those microfilmed cover 1883-1890 for the local, 1877-1890 for the district, 1885-1894 for the state assemblies, and 1878-1902 for the General Assembly. The non-microfilmed miscellaneous items cover 1877 to 1895. Subseries 1.5, 1880-1896, n.d., has general material, 1880-1887; loose issues of the Journal of United Labor, 1880-1889, with the years 1880-1883 on microfilm, and loose issues, not microfilmed here, of the Journal of the Knights of Labor, 1889-1906; printed ritual books, n.d., used in meetings and ceremonies; clipping scrapbooks, 1886-1897, covering news of Powderly and the order; clippings from newspapers and printed leaflets, brochures and form letters, 1877-1897; and additional clippings, 1880-1900, not microfilmed, as well as membership lists and directories, 1877-1890; copies of articles, speeches, and statements of Powderly, 1882-1903; and articles, speeches, and statements of others, 1881-1895. There is both a box listing and a corresponding microfilm reel listing where relevant as well as a partial index of correspondents available for the letters received, Boxes 1-90, that can be searched upon requests being made to the Archives staff at archives@mail.lib.cua.edu.

Series 2, Immigration and Labor, 1883-1930, contains primarily correspondence, illustrating Powderly's capacity as Commissioner-General of Immigration, Chief of the Information Division of the Bureau of Immigration, and as Commissioner of Conciliation for the Department of Labor. Subseries 2.1, Immigration Bureau, Department of the Treasurey, 1897-1907, Boxes 121-160, is the meat of this series and has, unlike most other portions of the collection, been substantially re-sorted and re-filed, with a folder list created. There are thousands of letters to and from Powderly, of both personal and professional nature. He corresponded frequently with U.S. senators, including future vice president Charles Fairbanks, and with other government officials, particularly his own subordinates, as well as with many family members, including his brother Joseph, an immigrant inspector in Texas until his death in 1902. There are also hundreds of letters from other politicians and labor activists concerned with endorsing or opposing Powderly's appointment in 1897 and 1898. Most of the letters to Powderly are handwritten, although some are typed, with Powderly's responses generally typed, presumably by either his personal secretary or his chief government clerk with the majority contained in bound letterpress copy books although some exist as loose carbon copies. Subseries 2.2, Immigration Bureau, Information Division, Department of Commerce and Labor, 1883(1904-1922)1930, Boxes 161-168, follows Powderly's later career in government and does not have a folder list. Included are letters of recommendation, official and private correspondence, reports, and statistics. Subseries 2.3, Immigration and Labor, 1888-1922, Boxes 222-223, also without a folder list, contain material not microfilmed, including annual reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, a portion of a 1906 travel diary to Europe, an 1888 Congressional investigation report, immigration laws and regulations, immigration pamphlets, news clippings opposing Powderly's 1897 appointment, and news clippings on various issues such as Chinese immigration.

Series 3, Black Diamond Anthracite Coal Company, 1889-1909, has correspondence, reports, and circulars. This company was organized in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in 1902 and dissolved in 1909. Powderly was elected president in 1902 and did much promotional work for the company, including writing an undated advertising pamphlet titled Coal and a Coal Mine: A Wonderful Coal Property in the Heart of the Great Anthracite Coal Fields of Pennsylvania. He resigned in 1905 after the company encountered economic difficulties and he had begun to suspect their business practices. This series has two divisions. The first has correspondence, 1902-1909, with one part being alphabetical by last name of the sender and the other is unorganized. The second has reports and circulars,1889-1903, that include the minutes of the company's organizational meeting, by-laws, first annual report, a prospectus, and the aforementioned advertising pamphlet by Powderly.

Series 4, Personal Papers, 1866-1937, has general correspondence and notes,1876-1922; various softbound notebooks, calendars, and account books, 1869-1890; legal correspondence to and from clients as well as other lawyers, 1894-1905; and mostly undated drafts and final copies of addresses, poems, and memorandums that were microfilmed. The non microfilmed portion contain legal documents from before Powderly was a lawyer, going back to 1866, as well as his files and papers from his legal career in Scranton, PA, and Washington, DC, 1893-1912. In addition, there are financial records, both personal and business related, including account books, ledgers, receipts, and bills that involve banking, mining, and real estate. There are also European travel notes on index cards dated 1906 and 1910, calling cards, address books,memberships, and the correspondence and text for the manuscript autobiography "The Path I Trod.".

Series 5, Printed Material, ca. 1870-1937, has select pamphlets relating to the Knights of Labor, including Powderly's speeches and reports on the meetings of local and distric assemblies that were microfilmed. The non microfilmed material, including oversized items in Map Case 3, has chronological, topical, and miscellaneous newspaper clippings, with some full issues, as well as general, labor, political, religious, and Irish pamphlets. In addition there are some miscellaneous scrapbooks.

Series 6: Miscellaneous Files, 1886-1937, has microfilmed material consisting of five folders. The first has a transcript of a talk between a Mr. Sinexon and Powderly about their early labor activities. The second and third contain some undated Powderly speeches and poems. The fourth has some miscellaneous Powderly correspondence, including personal and with Catholic Church officials, and the fifth has both correspondence and clippings regarding the Knights of Labor and the Catholic Church. The non microfilmed material is a two box hodgepodge. In addition, there are 25 oversized documents, 1 map,and 6 drawings/sketches/prints stored in Map Case 3.

Series 7, Scrapbooks, 1873-1904, is a selection of clippings scrapbooks, arranged chronologically with some overlap, relating specifically to Powderly, the Knights of Labor, and Immigration issues. There are gaps for some years such as 1880, 1893-1895, 1897, and 1899.

Series 8, Photographs, n.d., has two parts, with photos taken by Powderly and photos given to or collected by him. The first has a file cabinet and boxes of information sheets and contact prints encompassing the thousands of photographic images produced ca. 1902-1921 by Powderly. They were originally glass and nitrate based negatives and glass lantern slides that were converted, with the support of a NEH grant, to safety film in 1980. Reference prints were made and a card index created to give ready access. Overall, the photographic collection consists of bound information sheets, bound uncut prints, cut prints, and a subject catalog file. Powderly kept nitrate and glass negatives in a collection of envelopes, on which he generally noted the dates of the pictures, their subjects, the type of camera and shutter-speed he used, and other information. Archives staff numbered each of these, which produced a system of accession numbers. The first four digits refer to envelopes whose one, two, or three final numbers refer to the specific photographs within the envelopes. The uncut prints (4" x 5") are arranged usually four to a page in a series of albums and appear more or less in order of accession number. The second set of prints, cut to stand independently in a file, reflect the geographical order in which Powdery himself arranged his envelopes. Cumulative color-coded guide cards, each bearing a range of accession numbers, divide the cut-print files. The subject catalog is an interprative ordering intended to complement Powderly's geographic order with the following categories: Animals, Buildings, Immigrants, Indians, Landscapes, Photographic Studies, Portraits, Public Ceremonies, Statues and Monuments, Street Scenes, Transportation, and Travels and Tourism. Included are large print copies used in a 1977 exhibit on Ellis Island. The second part consists of numerous photos given to or collected by Powderly during his long career. A selection of 32 numbered photographs were microfilmed as part of this project in 1975 while, in 2002, over 300 were digitized and created as an on-line digital collection sponsored by the Washington Research Libraries Consortium (WRLC). In addition, there are miscellaneous, duplicate, and unprocessed photographs as well.

Series 9, Mayor of Scranton,1872(1877-1883)1916. A variety of items related to Powderly's tenure as a progressive mayor of Scranton, Pennsylvania, including a bail docket (1879-1880), docket of municipal records (1878-1879), annual report (1879), cash book (1877-1878), district voter list (ca. 1880), a Scranton Centennial printed journal (1916) and some undated postcards.

Series 10, Memorabilia and Artifacts, n.d. Several miscellaneous items, including books inscribed to him or otherwise part of his personal library. There are also engraved wood blocks with Powderly's image or name.

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Arrangement

The Terence Vincent Powderly Papers consists of ten series:

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

There are no access restrictions.

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Administrative Information

Custodial History

After Powderly's death in 1924, his papers remained with his second wife, Emma Fickenscher, who later transferred them to her sister Daisy who survived her. In a legal document signed September 9, 1939, Daisy transferred all rights to Terence's niece, Mary Powderly. Through the influence of Catholic University professors, Rev. William J. Kerby and Msgr. Francis J. Haas, Miss Powderly donated the papers to CUA on November 7,1941. In 1943, the Powderly Papers were transferred to Mullen Library and were subject to certain restrictions imposed by Miss Powderly that are no longer in effect.

Acquisition Information

In 1948, Mullen Library transferred the papers to the newly created Department of Archives and Manuscripts. In 1975, Mrs. Robert Corbey donated a Powderly photograph album, and, in 1981, the AFL-CIO donated a bound volume of Knights proceedings.

Processing Information

In 1952, 1958, and 1963, various parts of the papers, including letter press copy books and Knights of Labor proceedings, were microfilmed on campus. These microfilming projects were generally undertaken piece-meal in response to researcher requests. In 1968, CUA Archivist, Moreau B.C. Chambers, initiated a formal grant proposal to the National Historical Publications Commission (NHPC) to microfilm both the Powderly and John W. Hayes Papers, since both men were central to the Knights of Labor. In 1969, when NHPC rejected this grant proposal, citing lack of funds, CUA began to contact other organizations, such as the AFL-CIO. In 1972 and 1973, Professor Jonathan Garlock of the University of Rochester, who had used the papers extensively for his own research, developed a revamped microfilming and indexing proposal. In a letter dated 18 May 1973, Lloyd Wagner, Director of Libraries, informed Dr. Garlock that CUA had decided to pursue its own plans for indexing and microfilming the Powderly papers. In 1974, work was undertaken and funded by the Microfilming Corporation of America. The editor of the project was John A. Turcheneske, Jr. and his printed Guide to the Microfilm Edition incorporated text and research of Dr. Garlock. Restrictions on access appear to have been been lifted by Mary Powderly in the 1950s and this was confirmed in 1970 by Powderly's great nieces, Mrs. Ruth Ziebart and Mrs. Robert Corbey.

Until the 1990s the microfilm guide was used, so much as possible, as the primary means of accessing the Powderly papers. This was cumbersome at best and efforts to process the papers and prepare a more formal archival finding aid was begun by William John Shepherd under the direction of Archivist Anthony Zito (retired 1994). Incorporating the work of Mr. Turcheneske and Dr. Garlock, Mr. Shepherd continued these efforts as time permited, with the help of several student assistants including ary Beth Fraser, Marcella Fredrikkson, Andrew Kauffman, Jennifer Learned, Jason Mayernick, Chris Rounds. Benjamin Justesen, a practicum student, was especially invaluable for his work on Series 2. This initial version of the finding aid completed in September 2007 with EAD markup undertaken by Mr. Shepherd with the assistance of W. Jordan Patty, completed in September 2007.

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Related Material

Also housed at Catholic University are the Mother Jones Collection, The John Hayes Papers, and the John Mitchell Papers. Online digitzed material includes The Terence Vincent Powderly Photographic Prints Digital Collection, Terence Vincent Powderly and Ellis Island, 1897-1901, and Terence Vincent Powderly Photographic Collections at ACUA.

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Index Terms

This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.

Persons:

Organizations:

Places:

Subjects:

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Select Bibliography

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Detailed Description of the Collection

All contents copyright , The Catholic University Of America. All rights reserved.