American Left Ephemera Collection, 1875-2015

Creator

Richard Jules Oestreicher

Date

1875-2015

Description

A wide-range of primary source textual and visual material documents left-wing organizations in the U.S. during the 20th century. Dr. Richard Oestreicher, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh, amassed the American Left Ephemera Collection over a 35-year period to document the history of the American Left from the 1890s to the present. The collection includes items from the 1890s to the present including periodicals, photographs, letters, pamphlets, books, posters, flyers, labels, pins and other objects, but it emphasizes ephemeral items (e.g., items made for one time or brief usage and then likely to be discarded). While the majority of these items were produced by the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA), Communist Party USA (CPUSA), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), or organizations linked to them, the collection also includes material from a wide variety of other organizations and movements as well as from unaffiliated activists and radical intellectuals.

Type

Mixed materials

Format

22.75 linear feet (37 boxes)

Language

English, Yiddish, Italian, Finnish, Spanish, Hungarian, French

Identifier

AIS.2007.11

Collection Items

Woman's Place - In the Fight for a Better World
Elizabeth Gurley Flynn's pamphlet celebrates the achievements of women in history, including earning the right to vote and the creation of International Women's Day, but she also discusses how far women still have to go for equality. Gurley Flynn…
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