Special Collections in the Library of Congress:
Business, Economic, and Labor History

The special collections listed below contain materials of interest to researchers in a variety of disciplines, including U.S. business and labor history. Types of materials within each collection that may be of particular interest to the business/labor history researcher have been noted. Other business and labor related materials may also be located by searching the Prints and Photographs Division online catalog, the American Memory Collections, and A Guide to the Microform Collections in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division of the Library of Congress.

• Alexander Graham Bell Family Collection: Papers and Photographs of the Bell Family Manuscript Division
  

  Includes items relating to Bell's involvement in the first telephone company, patent disputes and early marketing of the telephone. Parts of the collection may be searched online.

• Architecture and Interior Design for 20th Century America, 1935-1955: Photographs by Samuel Gottscho and William Schleisner. Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes images of stores, factories. and offices primarily in the northeastern United States, and images of the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair.

• Dell Paperback Collection Rare Book and Special Collections Division
  

  A substantially complete set Dell paperbacks, illustrating changes in marketing strategy and pricing over the years.

• Detroit Publishing Company Collection Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes photographs of industry, transportation and buildings from the 1880's to the 1920's. Portions of the collection may be searched online

• The Emergence of Advertising in America, 1850-1920 (Selections from the Collections of Duke University)

  This American Memory online collection presents over 9,000 images relating to the early history of advertising in the United States. The materials, drawn from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, include cookbooks, photographs of billboards, print advertisements, trade cards, calendars, almanacs, and leaflets for a multitude of products. Together, they illuminate the early evolution of this most ubiquitous feature of modern American business and culture. It should be noted that these primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress and Duke University do not endorse the views expressed in these collections.

• Farm Security Administration. Office of War Information (OWI) Collection: Photographs of American life taken by FSA photographers, 1935-42. Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes photographs relating to various US industries, individual companies, industrial facilities and office buildings, child labor, factory workers, migrant laborers, construction projects, shipbuilding, and railroads. Selected images may be searched and viewed online.

  [Related OWI materials on the spread and classification of rumors, and jokes told by students and other citizens about the war effort are available in the World War II Rumor Project Collection in the American Folklife Center. The Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division holds nearly fifty thousand acetate disc recordings of foreign and domestic radio broadcasts used in support of the war effort which were transferred to the Library of Congress by the OWI in the U. S. Office of War Information (OWI) Collection ]

• George Korson Collection: Field recordings of the music of American coal miners, mid-twentieth century American Folklife Center
  

  Pennsylvania mining songs forming part of American industrial folklore.

• Kern County Survey Collection: Photographs of agriculture and industry in Kern County, California, 1880's Prints and Photographs Division

Includes photographs of ranch buildings, livestock, the processing of fruit and ground crops, methods of irrigation, and antimony mining operations. Captions provide geographical, historical, and commercial information for each scene.

• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Collection: Noncurrent records and photographs of the NAACP Manuscript Division and Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes material relating to the organization's concerns with segregation and discrimination in business and labor disputes.

• National Child Labor Committee Collection Photographs by Lewis Hine Manuscript Division
  

  Includes official records, correspondence, speeches, reports, press releases, and clippings, accompanying the Lewis Hine Photographs in the Prints and Photographs Division [see below].

• National Child Labor Committee Collection Photographs by Lewis Hine Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes approximately 5000 photographic prints and 225 glass negatives. Accompanying records, correspondence, speeches, reports, press releases, and clippings are available through the Manuscript Division [see above].

• New York World-Telegram and Sun Collection: News photographs, 1920-1960's Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes photographs relating to New York transportation, labor problems, and housing.

• Railroad Maps, 1828-1900. Geography and Map Division
  

  Includes progress report surveys for individual lines, official government surveys, promotional maps and route guides by individual firms which help document the development of U.S. industry and agriculture.

• Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collections: Insurance maps of U.S. cities, late nineteenth and twentieth centuries Geography and Map Division
  

  Patrons onsite at the Library of Congress may use an online collection of these maps created from ProQuest Information and Learning's microfilm collection of 660,000 Sanborn Maps, which were filmed from the Library of Congress' collection. Includes more than 660,000 large-scale maps of over 12,000 American towns and cities.

• Theodor Horydczak Collection Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes images of Washington DC area industries and construction sites.

• Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941 American Folklife Center
  

  A multi-format collection documenting the lives of migrant and displaced agricultural workers living in Farm Security Administration camps in California.

• Around the World in the 1890's: Photographs from the World Transportation Commission, 1894-1896 Prints and Photographs Division
  

  Includes images of various modes of transportation, and city, street and harbor views from North Africa, Asia, Australia, and Oceania.