Since the founding of the Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives in 1949, our collecting strategy has explicitly focused on assembling the most complete record of labor activism possible. Part of this mandate includes collecting and preserving the material culture and artifacts of the American labor movement. These artifacts include traditional items such as labor broadsides, banners, posters, badges, and pins and non-traditional items like a shoe stolen from a scab that was covered in bronze to commemorate a successful strike. The management collections at Kheel include artifacts, such as fabric samples and company letters documenting the sale of Lowell (Slave) Cloth, that on their surface seem to be the antithesis of activist artifacts, but through their use in other contexts have become powerful symbols in modern activist spaces. The materiality of these early objects of protest and activism serves to engage our patrons in a way that documents and records often do not. Their size, color, iconography, and craftsmanship make them striking examples of past activism, but that materiality also creates serious concerns around the preservation of and access to these items.

This presentation discusses the ways in which Kheel Center archivists have engaged students and the public with activist artifacts through active learning lessons and exhibitions, while processing archivists have sought to improve access to the artifacts through robust description, and taking the appropriate steps to protect them from the ravages of time.