You can read more about Labor Day and other events that have occurred
on Sept. 5 by going to Today
in History, a Web site that has something to say about every
day of the year.
You can view a Thomas Edison film, ca. 1904, of a
Labor Day parade in Massachusetts. More than a dozen of the
collections in the American Memory Web site offer films, ranging
from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and advertisements for Coca-Cola
to buckaroos in northern Nevada and presidential inaugurations.
These films can be accessed from the Motion Pictures page.
More than 8 million rare historical items can be freely accessed
in American Memory,
a Library Web site that organizes these materials in more than 120
thematic collections. If you go to the American
Memory Collection Search page and type in "Labor Day," you will
gain access to more that 180 items related to this holiday.
For example, a 1904 photograph from the "Chicago Daily News" shows
a Labor Day parade on Michigan Avenue. A panoramic
photograph that is nothing short of amazing offers a view of spectators
on all four sides of the ring at the Mike Dempsey - Billy Miske
heavyweight championship fight on Labor Day, Sept. 6, 1920, in Benton
Harbor, Mich. A 1933 photograph of a Labor Day parade in Washington,
D.C., were it not for the view of the U.S. Capitol in the background,
would scarcely be recognizable as an image of the bustling capital
city otherwise.
A. Labor Day parade, Main St., Buffalo,
N.Y., ca. 1900. Detroit Publishing Photograph Collection, Prints
and Photographs Division. Reproduction No.: LC-D4-12909 DLC (b&w
glass neg.); Call No.: LC-D4-12909.
B. Anton Bruehl, photographer. Labor Day
poster distributed to war plants and labor organizations, Aug. 1942.
Office of War Information (OWI) Collection, Prints and Photographs
Division. Reproduction No: LC-USE6-D-005707 DLC (b&w film neg.);
Call No.: LC-USE6- D-005707.