Summary
Abstract
Alice M. Hoffman was labor archivist and associate professor of labor studies at King of Prussia, Penn State in the 1970s. She supervised and conducted numerous oral history interviews with labor leaders, served as an officer of the Oral History Association and Pennsylvania Labor History Society, and joined Bryn Mawr College after retiring from Penn State.
Dates
- Creation: 1920-1998
Extent
31 Linear Feet
Background
Biographical Note
Alice M. Hoffman was labor archivist and associate professor of labor studies at King of Prussia, Penn State in the 1970s. She was elected vice-president and then president of the Oral History Association from 1974-1976. She served as principal consultant for the Bicentennial Labor History Exhibit for the Philadelphia Council of AFL-CIO in 1976, and received the 1985 Forrest Pogue Award for excellence in oral history from the Oral History Mid-Atlantic Region association. She is currently president emeritus of the Pennsylvania Labor History Society and affiliated with Bryn Mawr College. She authored Archives of Memory: A Soldier Recalls World War II in 1990 with her psychologist husband, Howard S. Hoffman. The book, a study of selective memory, explores the ldquo;bounds of memoryrdquo; among war veterans, examining the stability and reliability of their narratives in the face of catastrophic events. The daughter of Nelson H. Cruikshank, she edited The Cruikshank Chronicles : Anecdotes, Stories, and Memoirs of a New Deal Liberal with her husband Howard S. Hoffman.
Collection Overview
The Alice M. Hoffman Papers include an extensive array of both her professional papers and a wide-ranging archive of many of the most important people and events in American labor history in print and media. The professional material includes her vita and graduate thesis, correspondence, meeting minutes and agendas, office memoranda, instructional and exhibit material and publications for the Department of Labor Studies, Penn State, Pennsylvania Labor History Society papers and the Penn State Labor Archive, a project initiated by Hoffman. The collection encompasses print, audio and photographic material from 1920-1998.
Highlights of the print materials in the labor archive include the Coal Miner's Research Project, Working Women Roots, oral history transcripts with farm worker labor leader Cesar Chavez, and transcripts from Penn State's Oral History Project with various laborers and leaders. There are also publications about the Homestead Strike and the Memorial Day Massacre in Chicago in 1937.
The audio materials include recordings of the Oral History Project interviews with various industrial workers such as steelworkers, miners, and garment workers. There are also interviews from the George Meany Center AFL-CIO Oral History Project, record albums of miners and worker songs, National Public Radio's series on industrial work, Martin Luther King's We Shall Overcome speech upon acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, and transcripts and tapes of interviews with her husband, the psychology professor Howard S. Hoffman, regarding his World War II experiences. The collection also includes labor-related books.
The photographic items include photographs by the well-known photographer of immigrant social conditions, Lewis W. Hine, documenting immigrants at Ellis Island, laborers and families, union labor leaders, workers in various occupations, strike and organizing photographs from the Library of Congress, the Carnegie Library, the Tamiment Library of New York University and the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
Collection Arrangement
This collection is organized into series:
- A, Audio
- B, Graphics
- C, Microforms
- D, Moving Images
- E, Photographs
- F, None Assigned
Location
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Penn State University Libraries catalog via the link above. Archival collections may be housed in offsite storage. For materials stored offsite, please allow 2-3 business days for retrieval.
Existence and Location of Copies
Digital reproductions from this collection are available online at Union Made: Labor's Material Culture.
Existence and Location of Copies
Access scans may be available for some materials in this collection. Please contact Special Collections Research Services for more information at spcollections@psu.edu.
Processing Information
Processed by Special Collections staff.
Subjects
- Carnegie libraries Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Ellis Island (N.J. and N.Y.) Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- George Meany Center for Labor Studies Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Immigrants Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Miners Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Oral history Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- State Historical Society of Wisconsin Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- Strikes and lockouts Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- World War, 1939-1945 Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings
- photographs Subject Source: Art & Architecture Thesaurus
Using These Materials
Repository Details
Part of the Eberly Family Special Collections Library Repository
104 Paterno Library
Penn State University
University Park 16802 USA
(814) 865-1793
spcollections@psu.edu
Access Restrictions
Collection is open for research. Restrictions, where applicable, are noted at the series, subseries, or file levels.
Copyright Notice
Copyright is retained by the creators of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Alice M. Hoffman Papers (1881), Historical Collections and Labor Archives, Special Collections Library, Pennsylvania State University.
- Title
- Guide to the Alice M. Hoffman Papers, 1920-1998
- Status
- Unprocessed
- Author
- Prepared by Special Collections Library faculty/staff
- Date
- 2011
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- 2021-05-24: Bianca Alvarez added an Existence and Location of Copies note.