Labor History
Primary Sources and Educational Activities About Labor
Labor History
Use this special DocsTeach page from the National Archives to help your students learn about labor history through primary sources and educational activities. Explore hundreds of photographs, letters, laws, court cases, maps and more primary sources to learn about topics such as child labor, labor unions, enslaved labor and more. Analyze specific documents related to events such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire or Child Labor through educational activities.
Some of the documents, photographs, and other sources found on this page are featured in the Power & Light: Russell Lee’s Coal Survey exhibition. The exhibition features hundreds of photographs of coal miners and their families in the form of large-scale prints, projections, and digital interactives. These images document inhumane living and working conditions but also depict the joy, strength, and resilience of the miners’ families and communities.
COVER IMAGES
Left Column (Top to Bottom) Photograph of Mexican Laborers, Keating-Owen Child Labor Act, President Franklin Roosevelt’s Nomination of Frances Perkins for Secretary of Labor.
Right Column (Top to Bottom) Map Showing the Slave Population of Southern States, Harry Fain seated in shuttle car, Uncle Sam Becomes Democracy’s Arsenal, Flyers Distributed by Unions in Support of Chinese and Japanese Boycott.
Primary Sources for Labor History
Teaching Activities Related to Labor History
Kids at Work: The Child Labor Debate
Lewis Hine Shedding Light on Child Labor through Photographs
Confronting Work Place Discrimination on the World War II Home Front
A Coal Miner’s Work: Harry Fain