Guide to the Leon H. Swimmer Collection, 1910-1960 AIS.2005.08
- Repository
- ULS Archives & Special Collections
- Title
- Leon H. Swimmer Collection
- Creator
- Swimmer, Leon H.
- Collection Number
- AIS.2005.08
- Extent
- 0.21 Linear Feet (1 box)
- Date
- 1910-1960
- Abstract
- The collection contains materials relating to the life of Morris Swimmer, a baker and bakery owner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pamphlets and booklets shed light on the Jewish labor movement in Pittsburgh and the cultural life of Yiddish-speaking immigrants in the Hill District. Several of the pamphlets pertain to the defense of accused communists in the 1950s.
- Language
- This collection includes materials in both English and Yiddish languages.
- Publisher
- ULS Archives & Special Collections
- Address
- University of Pittsburgh Library System
Archives & Special Collections
Website: library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Business Number: 412-648-3232 (Thomas) | 412-648-8190 (Hillman)
Contact Us: www.library.pitt.edu/ask-archivist
URL: http://library.pitt.edu/archives-special-collections
Biography
Morris Swimmer (alt. Shwimmer) was a Jewish immigrant from Bedzin, Poland. He was born in December, 1897, and around 1910 he emigrated to Pittsburgh. Upon his arrival, drawing on an already acquired Old World skill, he went to work in several of the city's Jewish bakeries, including Caplan's and Tisherman's. During this time, Swimmer was a member of Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union Local 44, the Jewish Bakery workers union. In the 1920s he became a bakeshop owner, but his business was ruined in the 1929 Stock Market Crash. During the Depression, Swimmer was badly burned in an oven explosion. Swimmer shared the politically left orientation of a number of the immigrant workers of his time and place. A Depression-era Yiddish broadside in the A.E. Forbes collection at the Archives Service Center acknowledges Swimmer for keeping the price of his bread affordable for the working people of the Hill. He died in 1979.
Leon H. Swimmer, Morris Swimmer's son and the donor of the materials, was born on November 29, 1928, in Pittsburgh and was graduated from Schenley High School in 1946. He worked for several steel and bakery companies in Pittsburgh and served a term of duty with the U.S. Army in Korea and Japan. Swimmer was elected Business Agent (1960-1961) and Secretary (1968-1970) of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union Local 44, which covered workers in the city's Jewish bakeries. In 1974, he was elected President of Local 44 and brought about the merger of his local into the city's larger bakery local, Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union Local 12.
Scope and Content Notes
This small collection contains characteristic, although now rare, items from the world of the Jewish Hill District. These include union dues books from Local 44, the union for workers in the city's Jewish bakeries; program books for ethnic songfests which were held in the Jewish Labor Lyceum on Miller Street; a Yiddish language constitution booklet for the International Workers Order; and several rare brochures and pamphlets from the time of the Red Scare in Pittsburgh, several of which pertaining to the defense of accused communists in the 1950s.
Arrangement
The files in this collection are arranged chronologically.
Access Restrictions
No restrictions.
Acquisition Information
Gift of Leon H. Swimmer on August 23, 2005.
Preferred Citation
Leon H. Swimmer Collection, 1910-1960, AIS.2005.08, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Previous Citation
Leon H. Swimmer Collection, 1910-1960, AIS.2005.08, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Leon H. Swimmer Collection, 1910-1960, UE/Lab 2005:08, Archives Service Center, University of Pittsburgh
Processing Information
This collection was processed by ASC staff in 2005.
Copyright
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the University of Pittsburgh as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Related Material
The Records of Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union Local 44 (Pittsburgh, Pa.), AIS.1978.21, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
The A.E. Forbes Communist Collection, AIS.2000.07, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
The Hymen Schlesinger Papers, AIS.1977.33, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Records of the Bakery, Confectionery and Tobacco Workers International Union Local 12, AIS.1997.13, Archives & Special Collections, University of Pittsburgh Library System
Subjects
- Bakery and Confectionery Workers' International Union of America. Local 12 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Bakery and Confectionery Workers' International Union of America. Local 44 (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Freiheits Gesang Verein
- Jewish Labor Lyceum (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Swimmer, Leon H.
- Swimmer, Morris
- Hill District (Pittsburgh, Pa.)
- Pittsburgh (Pa.)
- Bylaws (Administrative records)
- Constitutions
- Polish Americans -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Jews -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Bakeries -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Labor unions and communism -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Labor unions -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Communists -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh
- Labor
- Ethnic groups
- Personal papers
- Bakery employees -- Labor unions -- Pennsylvania -- Pittsburgh