Libraries Keeping the Cultural Record of Labor. No. 454.

--Labor historian John W. Bennett has researched the history of the labor movement since his days as an undergraduate at the University of Massachusetts (Class of 1952). A born collector, he began accumulating memorabilia associated with unions, drawn to their potential as a visual record of labor iconography and self-representation.

In 2005, Dr. Bennett donated his collection to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, W.E.B. Du Bois Library where it became part of the strong holdings for the history of organized labor, work, and industry. Extending back to the 1880s, the Bennett Collection includes examples from around the country, but with a particularly strong representation of New England unions between the mid-1930s and mid-1970s.