Logo Picture Left SideLogo Picture Right SideLogo Text at Center
Home > Search > Site Map > Stone Workers’ Unions

Stone Workers’ Union Resources

Historical Research Relating to Labor

  • The Granite Cutters International Union, article by Dorothea McKenzie, Stone Cutters Online (in the “Projects” section).
  • Granite Cutters International. Tool Sharpeners Local 1 Records, 1896-1950, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst.
  • Granite Cutters’ National Union
    • Granite Cutters’ National Union, from Stone Magazine, Vol. V., No. V., October, 1892, pp. 501.

      “The Granite Cutters’ National Union was organized on Clark’s Island, Knox county, Maine, in 1877, the purpose being the advancement of the interests of the trade generally. The first thing to which the attention of the organization was directed was the abolition of the truck system of trading at stores owned and operated by the companies for which the cutters worked. When that was done the union turned its attention to the shortening of the hours of labor. Nine hours is now the maximum day’s work, and at Chicago and everywhere west of that city, except St. Cloud, an eight-hour day has been established.

      “The founder of the order was Thomas H. Murch, who was afterward chosen the Union’s first national secretary, resigning his office upon his election to congress from Maine.

      “The organization has but one salaried officer, the secretary of the national union. The principle of direct legislation is carried out to the full. Any member who desires the enactment of any legislation places his ideas on paper and transmits them through the local union to the national secretary, who places them before the national union, through the various local unions, for their action. The executive business of the national union is placed in the hands of a national union committee of three, selected every two years by vote of the union at large. The work they do for the union is paid for at the union scale. They are selected from the members of the local union where the seat of government of the national union is located. The union headquarters is moved every two years, the selection of the new location being made by vote of the membership of the various locals. The headquarters is now at Concord, N. H., and Josiah B. Dyer is the national secretary. He is also editor and publisher of the Granite Cutters’ Journal, the organ of the national union.

      “Wherever there is work in the granite industry, a charter is procured and the state organizer is summoned to organize a local union. This union has the care of all matters relating to the granite cutters, and their interests within the jurisdiction of the union.

      “One good provision of the national union is the burial benefit of $150, which is paid to the widow or is used to defray funeral expenses and pay any outstanding bills a deceased member may have contracted during his last sickness.”

  • Harvard University - Littauer Library, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Includes Slichter Industrial Relations Collection)
  • Illinois - Chronology of Illinois Labor History, presented by the Institute of Labor & Industrial Relations University of Illinois at U-C Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  • The Illinois Labor History Society, Chicago, Illinois.
  • Indiana University Division of Labor Studies
  • Industrial Relations Section, Princeton University, New Jersey.
  • International Association of Marble, Slate, and Stone Polishers, Rubbers and Sawyers, Tile and Marble Setters Helpers, Mosaic and Terrazzo Workers Helpers, Local 177, Lubbock, Texas 1949 (Labor Union Charter Collection Inclusive Dates: 1898-1970, Repository: Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library, BoxOS148, Charter: CH 9)

  • International Comparisons of Labor Unions, on Wikipedia.

  • International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers (BAC) (present-day union since 1865)

    • According to the “About Us” section of the web site, the International Union or Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers was founded in 1865, making it one of the oldest continuous unions in North America. This union represents “…the most highly skilled trowel trades craftworkers across the United States and Canada including bricklayers, stone and marble masons, cement masons, plasterers, tilesetters, terrazzo and mosaic workers, and pointers/ cleaners/ caulkers….”

  • International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers, presented on Wikipedia. (Established in 1893; affiliated in 1896; number of members, 8,500; Journal: The Miners’ Magazine.)

  • Journeyman Stonecutters Association of North America, by Walter S. Arnold, Sculptor/Stone Carver, Chicago, Illinois. Mr. Arnold describes this section as: “A brief history of the oldest active union in North America, the people who cut the stone and carved the statues, shaped the column capitals and chiseled the gargoyles that gave our built environment the human touch.”
    • Journeymen Stone Cutter’s Association, et al. - The Journeymen Stone Cutters’ action in trying to prevent purchase of nonunion cut stone was held to be an illegal restraint of interstate trade. (Bedford Cut Stone Co. v. Journeymen Stone Cutters’ Association, et al.) (1927), from the time on Labor History - A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers, sponsored by the Illinois Labor History Society, the Illinois Labor History Society, 28 E. Jackson, Chicago, Illinois.
  • Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives - “The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives was founded in 1949 as the Labor-Management Documentation Center. Its continuing purpose is the preservation of original source materials relevant to the history of American labor unions, management theory as it applies to labor and industrial relations, and the history of employees at the workplace.”
  • Labor and Working Class History Association
  • Labor Arts (From the web site: “Labor Arts presents powerful images that help us understand the past and present lives of working people.”)

  • Labor Day or Labour Day

  • Labor Day – Patriotic Holidays:  Educational Resources & Lesson Plans 

  • Labor History - A Curriculum of United States Labor History for Teachers. Sponsored by the Illinois Labor History Society, the Illinois Labor History Society
    28 E. Jackson, Chicago, Illinois.

  • Labor – List of Labor Strikes (1619 thru 2007, so far), on Wikipedia.

  • Labor Movement or Labour Movement (Worldwide), on Wikipedia.

    • Includes links to labor unions in the following locations: Albania, Antigua & Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, India, Iraq, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Nauru, Niger, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Senegal, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, the United Kingdom, & the United States.

  • Labor - Timeline of Labor Issues and Events (1790s through 1980s), on Wikipedia.

  • The Labor Trail in Chicago, Illinois

Bibliography

  • Admission to American Trade Unions, by French Eugene Wolfe, Johns Hopkins Press, 1912, 181 pp. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • The American Federation of Labor: History, Policies, and Prospects, by Lewis L. Lorwin, A. M. Kelley, American Federation of Labor, 1972, 573 pp., ISBN: 0678008809.

  • American Labor and the War, by Samuel Gompers, New York: George H. Doran Co., n.d. [1918]. (Available on the Internet Archive – Texts.)

  • American Labor Union Periodicals, by Bernard G. Naas, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, 1956.

  • American Labor Unions and Politics, 1900-1918, by Marc Karson, Southern Illinois University Press, 1958.

  • American Labor Unions’ Constitutions and Proceedings (microform), compiled by Bernard G. Naas. (1836-1980 and 1981-1990), 481 microfilm reels, Princeton University Industrial Relations Library, Labor Union Convention Practices. (Some of the elevant names include: (1) Building and Construction Trades Department (AFL-CIO); 1909; (2) Cement, Lime and Gypsum Workers International Union; (3) Marble, Stone, Slate Polishers, Rubbers, and Sawyers, Tile, Marble and Terrazzo Helpers International Association; (4) Stone and Allied Products Workers of America, United; (5) United Mine Workers of America; 1890
  • American Labor Unions: What They Are and How They Work, by Florence Peterson, Harper, 1945, 338 pp.
  • An Introduction to the Study of Organized Labor in America, by George Gorham Groat, Macmillan, 1916, 494 pp., ISBN: 0659907593. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • Black Labor in America, 1865-1983: A Selected Annotated Bibliography, by Joseph Wilson, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1986.
  • The Boycott in American Trade Unions, by Leo Wolman, Johns Hopkins Press, 1916, 148 pp. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • The British Labour Movement to 1970: A Bibliography, by Harold Smith, London: Mansell Publishing, 1981.
  • British Labour Statistics: Historical Abstract 1886-1968, Great Britain. Dept. of Employment and Productivity, 1971.

  • Bureau of Mines, United States – Publications

    • Bureau of Mines Publications and Journal Articles 1910-1996. U. S. Department of Commerce, National Technical Information Service (NTIS). (From the web site: “The United States Bureau of Mines of the Department of the Interior was established in 1910 by the Department of the Interior and abolished on March 30, 1996. NTIS maintains the entire collection of the Bureau's publications, some 5,000 documents….”)
    • Records of the Bureau of Mines (1860-1996), Guide to Federal Records, the National Archives.
    • United States Bureau of Mines Collection, United States Department of Labor, Mine, Safety, & Health Administration (MSHA), Technical Information Center and Library, National Mine Safety and Safety Academy. (From the web site: “In response to the growing number of fatalities in the mining industry, the United States Bureau of Mines (USBM) was established in 1910 to promote improved safety in mining through research and training. The Technical Information Center & Library’s USBM’s collection consists of virtually every publication produced by that agency since its beginning. The USBM provided information to the public on the minerals industry. In September, 1995, the Congress voted to abolish the USBM. The Library’s USBM collection includes the following: Bulletins, Minerals Yearbook, Reports of Investigations, Miners Circulars, Information Circulars, Technical Progress Reports, Handbooks, and Open File Reports.” Each type of publication is described on the MSHA Library web site.)
  • Canadian Economic History, by William Thomas Easterbrook and Hugh G. J. Aitken, University of Toronto Press, 1988, 606 pp., ISBN: 0802066968. (Chapter XXII: “Labour and Labour Organizations”)

  • The Canadian Worker in the Twentieth Century, Irving Abella and David Millar, eds., Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1978.

  • Chapters on Machinery and Labor, by George E. Barnett, Southern Illinois University Press, 1969, 191 pp., ISBN: 0809303973. (Chapter II. “The Stonecutters Union & the Stone Planer.”)

  • Colonial Trade of Maryland, 1689-1715, by Margaret Shove Morriss, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1914, Vol. 32. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • The Control of Strikes in American Trade Unions, by George Milton Janes, Vol. 34, Johns Hopkins Press, 1916, 131 pp. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • Department of Labor Bulletin, Vol. 7-8 1905 - 1906 Mar.-Dec., by New York (State). Dept. of Labor, Michigan State, University, Agricultural, Experiment Station, 1905.
  • Documenting Labor Inside and Out, University Libraries, University at Albany.
  • Ebb and Flow in Trade Unionism, by Leo Wolman, 1976, Ayer Publishing, 251 pp., ISBN: 0405076177.

  • Encyclopedia of United States Labor and Working-Class History, ed. by Eric Arneson, 2006, 1800 pp.

  • The Fall of The House of Labor: The Workplace, The State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925, by David Montgomery, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
  • The Finances of American Trade Unions, by Aaron Morton Sakolski, Johns Hopkins Press, 1906, 152 pp. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • From the Molly Maguires to the United Mine Workers; the Social Ecology of An Industrial Union, 1869-1897, by Harold W. Aurand, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1971.
  • A Government of American Trade Unions, by Theodore W. Glocker, A dissertation submitted to the Board of University Studies of The Johns Hopkins University in Conformity with the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 1907, Baltimore, Maryland, Johns Hopkins Press, 1913. (Stone cutters and granite cutters are discussed on pp. 138-139. This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • The Granite-cutters' Journal, Westerly, R.I.: The National Union, Firestone Microforms Services. (MICROFILM S01395 at Princeton University, Industrial Relations Library, Princeton, New Jersey.)
    • Granite Cutters' Journal - Uncovering Cousins: Granite Cutters' Journal

      Description: Transcriptions from the Granite Cutters’ Journal, a monthly publication of the Granite Cutters National Union. Articles include not only information on the granite industry, but also personal information on union members. Branch reports are from the U. S. and Canada, but there are often references to other countries such as Scotland and England. The Journal was first published in April 1877.

  • The Granite Cutters’ Journal, Vol. 35, by the Granite Cutters’ International Association of America, Granite Cutters’ National Union of the United States of America, 1911. (These issues of this magazine are available for reading or downloading in PDF on Google Books – Full View Books)

  • The Growth of American Trade Unions, 1880-1923, by Leo Wolman, New York, N.Y.: National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc., 1924 (3 editions), 170 pp., ISBN: 0405076150. (Chapter on “Chemical, Clay, Glass, and Stone,” pp. 57; viewable on Google Book Search.)
  • The Hardrock Miners; A History of the Mining Labor Movement in The American West, 1863-1893, by Richard E. Lingenfelter, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1974.
  • Historical Directory of Trade Unions, by Arthur Ivor Marsh, Arthur Marsh, Victoria Ryan, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 1987, 3 pp., ISBN: 085967990X. (Labor Unions, Great Britain History)
  • A History of British Trade Unions Since 1889, by Hugh Armstrong Clegg, Alan Fox, A. F. Thompson, Clarendon Press, 1985, 634 pp., ISBN: 0198282982.

  • History of Labour in the United States, Vol. 2. 1860-1896, by John R. Commons, 1918.

  • History of the Labor Movement in the United States: From Colonial Times to the Founding of the American Federation of Labor, Philip S. Foner, New York: International Publishers, 1947.

  • History of United Mine Workers of America, by Chris Evans, Indianapolis (1918?-20).
  • Industrial Relations in the Building Industry, by William Haber, Ayer Publishing, 1978, ISBN: 0405029233.

  • Italian Immigrants in the Stone Workers’ Union, by Edwin Fenton (Associate Professor of History, Carnegie Institute of Technology), in Labor History, Vol. 3, No. 2, Spring 1962, pp. 188-207. (This article is available for a fee on the informaworld web site.)

  • Jurisdiction in American Building-Trade Unions, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, by Nathaniel Ruggles Whitney, Ph.D., Instructor in Political Economy, Edward Augustus, Freeman, Herbert Baxter, Adams, Albert Shaw, E R L Gould, Edward Webster Bemis, Edward Ingle, John Johnson, Alexander Johnston, B James Ramage, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press, 1914, 599 pp. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • Journal of Social Science, By F B Sanborn, American Social, Science Association, Isaac Franklin Russell, Frederick Stanley Root, American Social Science Association, Leypoldt & Holt, 1909. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)

  • Labor History (Journal), a scholarly journal published by Taylor and Francis, description on Wikipedia.

  • Labor History Archives in the United States: A Guide for Researching and Teaching, by Daniel J. Leab, Philip Parker, Wayne State University Press, 1992, ISBN 0814323898.

  • Labor History Magazine, Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, Vol. 1 through Vol. 51, available on the informaworld web site. (Subscription and back issues are available on this web site.)

  • “Labor History Sources at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst,” by Ken Fones-Wolf, in Labor History, Volume 31, Issue 1 & 2 Spring 1990, pages 31-38.

  • Labor in America, by Melvyn Dubofsky and Foster Rhea Dulles, 2004.

  • Labor in Maine: Building The Arsenal of Democracy and Resisting Reaction At Home, 1939-1952, by Charles A. Scontras. Orono: Bureau of Labor Education University of Maine, 408 pp.
  • Labor in The Twentieth Century, John T. Dunlop and Walter Galenson, eds., New York: Academic Press, 1978.
  • Labor in the USA: A History, by Ronald L. Filipelli, New York: A.A. Knopf, 1984.
  • The Labor Movement in America,  By Richard Theodore Ely, T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1886, 399 pp. (This book is available for reading or downloading on the Google Book Search - Full View Books. < http://books.google.com/ >
  • Labor Problems: A Text Book, by Thomas Sewall Adams, Helen Laura Sumner, Macmillan, 1905, 579 pp. (Includes a chapter on immigrant workers.) (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • Labor Problems in American Industry, by Carroll Roop Daugherty, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1936, 959 pp.
  • The Labor Problems of American Society, by Carroll Roop Daugherty, John Bishop Parrish, Houghton Mifflin, 1952, 846 pp.
  • Labor Unions, Edited by Gary M. Fink, Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1977, 520 pp. (Greenwood encyclopedia of American institutions) (Contains historical sketches of more than 200 national unions and labor federations that have been part of the American labor movement.)
  • Labor’s Story in the United States, by Philip Yale Nicholson, Temple University Press, 2004, 376 pp., ISBN: 1592132391.

  • Labour History (Journal), a scholarly journal published in Australia by the Australian Society for the Study of Labour History, description on Wikipedia.

  • Labour History Review (Journal), a scholarly journal published in the United Kingdom by the Society for the Study of Labour History, description on Wikipedia.

  • The Lean Years: A History of the American Worker, 1920-33, by Irving Berstein, 1966.

  • The Manufacture of Concrete Blocks and Their Use in Building, by Harmon Howard Rice, William M. Torrance, The Engineering News Publishing Company, 1905, 122 pp. (Stone cutters are discussed in this book.) (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  •  “Memorializing the Civil War Dead:  Modernity and Corruption under the Grant Administration” (pdf), by Bruce S. Elliott, in Markers XXVI, Association for Gravestone Studies, 2011, pp. 15-55.  (Reprinted with permission of the Association for Gravestone Studies.) 

    • This article describes the need to mass produce the Civil War headstones rather than by individual stone carvers. Contracts for the headstones and bases were given out to several different quarries and companies in Vermont, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Kansas, and Tennessee. The need for large numbers of markers also increased the use of the sandblasting process to speed up carving the names on the stones. Both mass production the sandblasting process caused great changes in the work of the stone carvers, which led to demands by the stone workers’ unions, such as the eight-hour work day.

  • New York Labor Heritage: A Selected Bibliography of New York City Labor History, by Robert Wechsler, New York: Tamiment Institute Library, Robert F. Wagner Archives, 1981.
  • “Organized Labor in America,” by Philip Taft, in American History, Harper, 1964.
  • The Samuel Gompers Papers, by Samuel Gompers, Stuart Bruce Kaufman, Peter J. Albert, and Grace Palladinom, Contributor Samuel Gompers, University of Illinois Press, 1986, 6 pp., ISBN: 0252013506.

  • A Short History of the United States Working Class: From Colonial Times to the Twenty-First Century, 1999.

  • Skilled Hands, Strong Spirits: A Century of Building Trades History,  by Grace Palladino, Published 2005, Cornell University PressPolitics/Current Events, 304 pp., ISBN 0801443202.
  • The Standard Rate in American Trade Unions, by David Aloysius McCabe, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1912, 243 pp.

  • The Stone Cutters’ Journal, Vols. 37-39, 1922. (These issues of this magazine are available for reading or downloading in PDF in Google Books – Full View Books.)

  • “The Stone Cutters’ Union and the Stone-Planer,” by George E. Barnett, in The Journal of Political Economy, Vol. XXIV, No. 5, May 1916, University of Chicago, Department of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, 1916, pp. 417-444. (This article is available on Google Books - Full View Books for reading or downloading in PDF format in a collection of Vol. 24, Issues No. 1-6, 1916 - Scroll down to this article.)

  • Studies in American Trade Unionism, by Jacob Harry Hollander and George Ernest Barnett, H. Holt and Company, 1906, 380 p p. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)
  • Technological Change and Workers' Movements, by Melvyn Dubofsky, Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1985.
  • Trade Union Publications: The Official Journals, Convention Proceedings, and Constitutions of International Unions and Federations, 1850-1941, by Lloyd George Reynolds and Charles C. Killingsworth, Vol. 1, The Johns Hopkins Press, 1944. (Chapter 8. Glass, Clay, Stone and Woodworking, pp. 207-226.)
  • Trade Unionism in Germany from Bismarck to Hitler, 1869-1933, by John Anthony Moses, Rowman & Littlefield, 1982, 560 pp., ISBN: 0389200727.
  • A Trial Bibliography of American Trade-Union Publications, Series XXII Nos. 1.2, Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science (Edited 1882-1901 by Herbert B. Adams) J. M. VINCENT J. H. Hollander W. W. Willoughby, Editors (A Trial Bibliography of American Trade-Union Publications Prepared By The Economic Seminary of The Johns Hopkins University, Edited By George. Barnett, PH. D., Instructor in Political Economy, Baltimore, The Johns Hopkins Press, Published Monthly, January-February, 1904.
  • Union Policies and Industrial Management, by Sumner H. (Sumner Huber) Slichter, The Brookings Institution, 1941, 597 pp.
  • Unions Before the Bar: Historic Trials Showing the Evolution of Labor Rights, by Elias Lieberman, Oxford Book Co., 1960, 374 pp.
  • United We Stand: The United Mine Workers of America, 1890-1990, by Maier Bryan Fox, Washington, D.C.: United Mine Workers of America, 1990.
  • What’s What in the Labor Movement: A Dictionary of Labor Affairs and Labor Terminology, compiled by Waldo R. Browne, B. W. Huebsch, Inc., 1921. (This book is downloadable in PDF format on Google Book Search - Full View Books.)

  • Workers and the State in Twentieth Century Nova Scotia, Michael Earle, Frederiction: Acadiensis Press, 1989.

Notes on Unions:

(from The Samual Gompers Papers web site - Glossary - Individual Organizations section.)

The Granite Cutters' International Union of the United States and the British Provinces of America was formed in 1877. In 1880 it changed its name to the Granite Cutters' National Union of the United States of America and in the following year participated in the formation of the FOTLU. It joined the AFL in 1888, but left the Federation in 1890, rejoining in 1895. In 1905 it adopted the name Granite Cutters' International Association of America.

[Top of Page]