6.42 Linear Feet, 6 ft. 5 in. (13 document cases, 5 in. each; 1 document case, 3 in.; 1 small flat storage box, 3 in.; 1 large
flat storage box, 3 in.; 1 unboxed scrapbook, 3 in.)
Creator
Bittner, Van A. (Van Amberg), 1885-1949
Location
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown,
WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / Fax: 304-293-3981 / URL: https://wvrhc.lib.wvu.edu/
Language
English
Abstract
UMWA international representative and organizer, member of the Steel Workers Organizing Committee, director of the CIO Organizing
Committee, and vice-chairman of the CIO Political Action Committee Correspondence, legal papers, diaries, clippings, and other
papers relate to Bittner's early career in the western Pennsylvania coal fields; his presidency of District 5, UMWA, 1911-1916;
and his organizational activities in southeastern Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, northern West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Kansas,
1916-1928. Subjects include labor strife and strikes in West Virginia, 1912-1913, 1924-1928, Alabama, 1920-1921, Westmoreland
County, Pennsylvania, 1911, and Oklahoma and Kansas, 1922; UMWA intra-union affairs; relief for striking miners; Kansas Industrial
Court; Workers Communist Party; Red International of Labor Unions; American Association for Labor Legislation; National League
of People's McAdoo Clubs; labor trouble in Montana, 1920; the railway assigned coal car problem; and Bittner's activities
on various state and national labor boards and committees. There are photographs of mining towns, camps, and tent colonies,
labor parades, conventions, demonstrations, and strikes; portraits of labor leaders; and pictures of the Irwin, Pennsylvania
coalfield strike of 1911, the Ludlow Massacre of 1914, and the northern West Virginia strikes of 1924-1926. Frank Farrington,
William Green, Frank J. Hayes, John L. Lewis, John Mitchell, Philip Murray, and John P. White are included among the correspondents.
A detailed listing of the correspondence in boxes 1-7 is available upon request.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Conditions Governing Access
No special access restriction applies.
Preferred Citation
[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Van Amberg Bittner (1885-1949), Labor Leader, Papers, A&M 1698, West
Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.