Carl Holderman papers

Dates

1920 - 1983
Majority of material found within 1945 - 1959

Scope and Contents

The Carl Holderman Papers consist of 2.8 linear feet of material, comprising 7 manuscript boxes, spanning the period 1920s–1983, bulk 1945-1959. They comprise the professional records of Carl Holderman, documenting his history in the twentieth century. They also include records pertaining to the American Federation of Hosiery Workers and the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

The Carl Holderman Papers are composed of textual records, such as correspondence, greeting cards, telegrams and five scrapbooks. The scrapbooks contain not only newspaper clippings but also original correspondence and related documents, photographic prints, printed ephemera and small artifacts such as medallions.

Extent

2.8 Linear Feet (7 manuscript boxes)

Provenance

Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries was given the Carl Holderman Papers on permanent loan by the Carey Library of the School of Management and Labor Relations.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Biographical / Historical

A veteran of 30 years in the trade union movement, Carl Holderman was among the initiators of the movement for industrial organization, which resulted in the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations. Born in Hornell, New York, on January 15, 1894, his formal education was terminated in the second year of high school and Mr. Holderman took a job as a messenger for the Erie Railroad. This was followed by four years as an apprentice in the Erie shops at Hornell.

Holderman spent the next 14 years in hosiery mills in Hornell, Paterson and Union City. In March 1918, he joined his first union when he became a member of the American Federation of Hosiery Workers, AFL. He held various local union offices and in 1926 was named manager of the New York-New Jersey district. In 1928, he was a member of the New Jersey State Federation of Labor executive board and also international vice-president of the hosiery workers’ union.

In 1931, he left the hosiery workers to become business manager of a cooperative labor publishing house in Philadelphia. In 1933, he returned to active labor organizing in Pennsylvania for the American Federation of Hosiery Workers. During the general strike of textile workers in Pennsylvania, in 1934, Holderman met Sidney Hillman, president of the powerful Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. The two became friends. By the end of the strike, Holderman was painfully aware of the weaknesses of the textile workers’ union. He proposed to Hillman an organizational plan embodying the ideas which were adopted two years later at the formation of the CIO. Under Holderman’s plan, a powerful organizing committee composed of the heads of five internationals including the Hosiery workers would direct organization and furnish needed funds for the drive. The four more prosperous internationals – the mine workers, clothing workers and garment workers – would finance the campaign. The plan fell through when the American Federation of Hosiery Workers agreed to accept the financial aid but insisted on carrying out the drive itself.

In 1935, Holderman returned to head the New York-New Jersey district of the Hosiery Workers. From that post, he was drafted by Hillman to act as regional director for the Textile Workers’ Organizing Committee. The committee carried on a two-year campaign and in 1939, the CIO Textile Workers’ Union of America held its first Convention, at which Holderman was elected a vice-president.

Holderman was a founder of the New Jersey State CIO Council, serving as its secretary-treasurer from its inception in 1937, to December 1945, when he was elected president. He was re-elected president annually until 1947, when bi-annual elections began. He was elected to two-year terms in 1947, 1949, 1951 and 1953. Always a believer in vigorous political activity by labor to protect its economic interests, from 1936 to 1943 Holderman was chairman of Labor’s Non-Partisan League of New Jersey, which developed into the American Labor League of New Jersey. When the State CIO Political Action Committee was formed in 1943, Holderman became its Chairman and subsequently served as State PAC Chairman and Director.

During World War II, Holderman was a member of the Newark Community Manpower Mobilization Committee, a member of the Third Enemy Alien Board; and a member of the second region of the War Labor Board.

Holderman held a number of other public offices. In 1928-29, he was president of the Paterson Police and Fire Pension Fund Commission; in 1941, he was an investigator for the Office of Production Management in Washington; and until 1948, he was a member of the State Unemployment Compensation Commission advisory board.

In 1954 until his death on May 20, 1959, Holderman served as New Jersey’s Commissioner of Labor and Industry.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into three series:

I. Personal Files

II. Ephemera

III. Scrapbooks

Series Descriptions

I. Personal Files, 1945-1983, bulk 1954-1959 (9 folders, Box 1)

Arranged alphabetically.

The records in this series include correspondence, certificates, greeting cards, and telegrams. Much of the records in this series document the career and death of Carl Holderman. The series has been divided into five sub-series: Biographical materials, Certificates (copies), Condolences, Photos and Scrapbook by Joel Jacobson – New Jersey Press Council. Biographical material contains biographical material relating to Holderman. Also included are biographical sketches of the eight New Jersey Labor Commissioners, an article written by Bob Narus in 1984 for the New Jersey Reporter entitled “The Marciante Mystique” regarding Charles Marciante, the central figure of the labor movement in New Jersey; a biography of Louis P. Marciante, President of the New Jersey State Federation of Labor, who received a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters in 1959; a biography of Mary Cecile White for the Who’s Who in Jersey Labor and of Vincent J. Murphy, a member of the Newark City Commission and Mayor. Also included is correspondence to and from Lewis Herrmann, the Editor of the New Jersey Labor Herald, and a person named Ruslander, denying Holderman’s alleged Communist connections.

The sub-series Certificates (copies) contain copies of certificates of attendance regarding Harry S. Truman’s Inauguration, recognition from the National CIO Committee to Abolish Discrimination and the Afro-American Award, New Jersey State Council, CIO.

The sub-series Clippings contains photocopies of newspaper clippings documenting Holderman’s nomination and career as Commissioner of Labor and Industry. Include are documents pertaining to the New Jersey State AFL protest regarding his nomination, Eagle Point Works’ Safety Record and his second heart attack in 1958.

The sub-series Condolences is divided into four sub-groups: Condolences, which contain correspondence from various union officials, government and personal friends relating to Holderman’s death in 1959; Condolences cards; Condolences letters, which included donations and pledges to the Carl Holderman Memorial Fund and Building Fund; and Condolences telegrams.

The sub-series Photos consists of correspondence relating to photographs sent to Holderman. Correspondents include Joel R. Jacobson and Harry Kranz of the CIO New Jersey State Council and H. H. Chandler, Superintendent of the Texaco Company. Sub-series Scrapbook by Joel Jacobson contains a scrapbook of Holderman’s obituaries from numerous newspapers.

II. Ephemera, 1920s-1950s (12 items, Box 2)

This series contains photographs illustrating Carl Holderman’s career from the textile unions to the New Jersey State Commissioner of Labor. Photographs include the contract signing between A. & M. Karagheusian Inc. and T.W.U.A., Holderman’s swearing in as State Labor Commissioner, Irvine Kerrison and Al Burkan.

III. Scrapbooks, 1920s-1962, bulk 1954-1959 (5 scrapbooks, Boxes 3-7)

Scrapbook 1, 1920s-1954, contains photographs pertaining to the formation of the Jersey State CIO Council. Also included is the first photograph of Holderman as State Commissioner of Labor.

Scrapbook 2, 1951-1959, contains newspaper clippings pertaining to Holderman’s career as President of the New Jersey State CIO Council and State Commissioner of Labor. Included are obituaries that appeared in local newspapers. Also, included in the scrapbook, the government shield of the State Commissioner of Labor.

Scrapbook 3, 1951-1962, contains newspaper clippings, correspondence and telegrams pertaining to Holderman’s career as President of the New Jersey State CIO Council and New Jersey State Commissioner of Labor and his death. Records addressed to Carl Holderman’s wife, Bea, are included in the scrapbook, along with letters and telegrams from state officials regarding the Holderman Testimonial Dinner and his re-election as President of the New Jersey State CIO Council. The scrapbook also contains a citation from the Amalgamated Food and Allied Workers Union, correspondence of thanks and a newspaper clipping pertaining to the ESSO Decision to use new forms for accidents. Correspondents include New Jersey Governor Robert B. Meyner and Rutgers President Lewis Webster Jones.

Scrapbook 4, 1959, is a collection of newspaper clippings, obituaries, correspondence and telegrams pertaining to death of Carl Holderman.

Scrapbook 5, 1955, contains documents pertaining to the UN Labor Union Convention.

Container List

Box 1, Folder 1: Biographical materials - Holderman & others – New Jersey Press Council, 1945-1959

Box 1, Folder 2: Certificates (copies), 1948-1953

Box 1, Folder 3: Clippings, 1954-1956

Box 1, Folder 4: Condolences, 1959-1983

Box 1, Folder 5: Condolences - cards, 1959

Box 1, Folder 6: Condolences - letters & pledges, 1959

Box 1, Folder 7: Condolences - telegrams, 1959

Box 1, Folder 8: Photos, 1954-1959

Box 1, Folder 9: Scrapbook by Joel Jacobson – New Jersey Press Council, 1959

Box 2: Ephemera (Photographs), 1920s-1950s

Box 3: Scrapbook, 1920s-1950s

Box 4: Scrapbook, 1954-1958

Box 5: Scrapbook, 1951-1962

Box 6: Scrapbook (In Memoriam), 1959

Box 7: Scrapbook - UN Labor Union Convention, 1955