While a research trip to Washington, D.C. usually means a stop at the Library of Congress or National Archives, labor historians also will want to visit the George Meany Memorial Archives in Silver Spring, Maryland, conveniently close to Archives II and the University of Maryland in College Park, as well as downtown Washington, D.C.  The George Meany Memorial Archives page is profiled on our ArchivesWiki, with general information and a collection summary.

The AFL-CIO established the George Meany Memorial Archives in 1980 to honor its first president, George Meany, and to preserve its historical records and make them available for research. In 1987 the archives moved from the AFL-CIO headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. to Silver Spring. The archives hold the institutional records of the AFL-CIO, “including administrative and staff departments, constitutional trade departments, and some federation-sponsored programs. Dating from the earliest days of the American Federation of Labor (1881), but offering almost complete records from the founding of the AFL-CIO (1955), the collections provide rich resources for historians, political scientists, trade union activists, and undergraduate and graduate students who want to examine a wide range of 20th-century American political and social issues.” Appointments are available for research five days a week.

Again, finding aids and catalogues for the George Meany Archives are available on its ArchivesWiki page. If you have experience in the Meany archives, please contribute to this project.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.