July 24, 2018

W. J. Shepherd, acting University Archivist, and Maria Mazzenga, education archivist, are quoted at length about Catholic University labor collections in a ProQuest blog post on labor unions and primary source documents.

... We spoke with William John Shepherd, historian, author and longtime archivist at CUA, about what he considers the most interesting documents in this collection. He noted the papers of Terence V. Powderly and John W. Hayes are especially important for investigating “the heyday of the Knights of Labor, the first successful national labor union in the U.S.” ...

For Mazzenga, who is passionate about “encouraging students and researchers to think creatively about using historical materials to understand the past,” is excited that “researchers can now study U.S. labor history in a more comprehensive way right from their home computers.”

“Teachers can now use the materials to instruct in their classrooms,” she added, “or have students review particular documents such as letters exchanged between labor organizers provide insight on developing strategies to gain higher wages or better working conditions for class assignments.”

Continue reading at proquest.com.