Over the past several months, AJHS has added container lists to a number of archival finding aids. A finding aid helps researchers identify archival records relevant to their work, and a container list makes that discovery more specific by showing what is in each box or folder. These newly added container lists also highlight how even small, one-box collections can hold fascinating details about American Jewish life: labor activism, political organizing, religious and charitable networks, family memory, and individual lives that intersected with major moments in history.
Labor Organizing and the Garment Trades
Records of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union (I-309)
Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America Collection (I-330)
Two of these recently updated collections document the history of Jewish involvement in American labor organizing, especially in the garment trades. The International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, founded in 1900, became one of the most significant labor unions in the United States, representing many women and immigrant workers in the clothing industry. The Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, founded in 1914 under the leadership of Sidney Hillman, similarly fought to improve wages, hours, working conditions, and the everyday lives of garment workers. Together, these collections show how union publications, pamphlets, almanacs, and souvenir journals could serve not only as records of labor activity, but also as expressions of worker pride, political engagement, and community identity.
Records of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, I-309.
August Bondi Papers
The August Bondi papers offer a glimpse into a life that connected many parts of nineteenth-century Jewish and American history. Born in Vienna in 1833, Bondi immigrated to the United States after the failed Austrian revolution of 1848, later becoming involved in the antislavery movement in Kansas and serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. His papers document the experiences of a Jewish immigrant whose life crossed continents and connected abolitionism, westward settlement, military service, and civic life.
Jewish Ephemera, Stamps, and Organizational Life
Samuel Halperin Collection of Ephemera (P-852)
The Samuel Halperin Collection of Ephemera contains labels, stamps, catalogs, pamphlets, correspondence, stock certificates, and other printed materials from a variety of Jewish political and religious organizations. Although many of the items are small, they point to the many ways Jewish organizations communicated with supporters, raised funds, circulated political messages, and encouraged participation in communal causes. Materials such as Hadassah stamps, “Free Soviet Jews” stickers, and stamps supporting an orphanage in Israel show how even everyday paper objects could carry messages of advocacy, philanthropy, and Jewish solidarity.
Family Papers and Everyday Memory
Schucart family papers (P-788)
AJHS also holds many family paper collections, including several that have recently had container lists added. The Schucart family papers are a reminder that family records can preserve not only genealogy and correspondence, but also humor, personality, and everyday connection. One especially memorable item is a family newsletter titled Schucart Shenanigans, a small but lively example of how families document themselves and maintain relationships across time and distance.
Conclusion
These collections show how much can be found in a single box: union campaigns, charitable appeals, family newsletters, political stickers, souvenir journals, and traces of individual lives. Together, they demonstrate how archival description can help bring small collections and the stories they contain more clearly into view.
Other collections that have recently had container lists added include:
Jewish Music Council Collection (I-331)
William S. Schwartz papers (P-354)
Independent Order of B’rith Sholom collection (I-349)
Jewish Legion collection (I-429)
Philip M. Raskin collection (P-711)
Records of the Farband-Labor Zionist Order (I-329)
Records of the Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim (Charleston, S.C.) (I-107)
Maxwell Whiteman Collection of Hendricks Family Papers (P-849)
Halpern Family Papers (P-839)
Fern family papers (P-780)
