Following is a list of exhibits that have been hosted by the George Meany Memorial Archives (NOTE: These exhibits did not feature materials from the archives' collections):
Black Fridays: Faces from an American Dream, April 25-June 25, 1993, featured photographs by Martin Desht and text by Richard Sharpless depicting unemployed factory workers and closed factories in Pennsylvania.
Triangle Fire, October 28, 1993-March 24, 1994, originally assembled in 1976 to mark the 75th anniversary of the Triangle fire, featured photographs, editorial cartoons, funeral notices, and selected text from Leon Stein's The Triangle Fire. Lent by the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union.
The Changing Landscape of Labor: Workers and Workplace, April 1-June 30, 1994, featured photographer Michael Jacobson-Hardy's black and white images, along with text, depicting changes in manual labor in late twentieth-century New England.
Stolen Dreams: Portraits of the World's Working Children, July 11-September 30, 1994, featured thirty of physician Michael Parker's black and white photographs documenting contemporary child labor in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Mexico.
Trabajo de la Tierra, November 14, 1994-February 3, 1995, featured Hispanic artist Nora Chapa Mendoza's paintings of migrant workers toiling in the fields.
Ben Yomen: An Artist for the Worker, February 20-April 28, 1995, featured forty-four of Yomen's original ink and litho grease pencil political cartoons drawn during the 1940s.
My Own Eyes: Photographs of the Working People of Florida, May 8-August 4, 1995, featured forty black and white images shot between 1987 and 1990 by Eric Breitenbach, a documentary photographer, as he traveled the state.
By Hammer & Hand All Arts Do Stand: The Banners and Murals of Mike Alewitz, August 8-November 30, 1995, featured eight banners, along with over fifty photographs and posters that documented projects Alewitz produced for numerous labor unions.
Midwifery: Labor by Women and with Women, Photographs by Martha Tabor, January 29-April 26, 1996, captured the practices of contemporary nurse-midwives in various settings in Montana, New Mexico, Philadelphia, and Texas.
On the Job: Art by Tracy Sugarman, May 13-September 6, 1996, featured forty-six ink, wash, and charcoal studies representing the variegated world of work that Sugarman observed over the past fifty years.
Agaist the Grain: Buffalo's Grain Scoopers, September 16, 1996-January 10, 1997, featured thirty- five photographs by Mark Maio that traced the historical development of the grain industry in Buffalo, New York, and documented the lives of Buffalo's contemporary grain scoopers.
Into the Marketplace: Working-Class Women in 20th Century Hawaii, January 27-May 30, 1997, explored the experiences of a majority of working women as they left rural communities for the urban marketplace, shedding light on the working conditions for women in Hawaii and the broader implications of such work nationwide. Sponsored by the Hawaii Committee for the Humanities.
We Called It a Work Holiday: The 1946 Oakland General Strike, July 7-November 26, 1997, used historical photographs to present points of view of both conservative businesses and progressive labor organizations to demonstrate how working people make and influence history. Sponsored by the Oakland Museum of California.
Faces Behind the Labels, April 13-July 3, 1998, featured photographs about the less glamorous side of the garment industry, namely, the garment workers--the men and women behind the brand name labels many of us wear--who cut, sew, and assemble garments, often in sub-standard working conditions. Sponsored by Sweatshop Watch.
Women on the Railroad: Paintings by Mark Priest, July 21-November 6, 1998, featured the acrylic paintings of women at work on the railroad by award-winning railway artist Mark Priest. Paintings portrayed the women who entered this traditionally male domain, the reception they received, the prejudices they faced, and their determination to succeed.
Every Worker is an Organizer: Photographs by David Bacon, January 29-May 28, 1999, depicted the story of California farm laborers (date palm workers, strawberry and tomato pickers, and broccoli and lettuce harvesters), and the resurgence of the United Farm Workers of America in the 1990s.
N.A.F.T.A. (Not a Fair Trade for All), June 21-October 8, 1999, an installation of photographs and text by Fred Lonidier that depicted the struggles in the colonias and maquiladoras of northern Baja California, and the solidarity support of unions and others in the United States.
The Quiet Sickness: A Photographic Chronicle of Hazardous Work in America, October 25, 1999-February 25, 2000, featured photographer Earl Dotter's visual 25-year chronicle of the individual cost in health and lives lost by those who perform essential but often unnecessarily hazardous work to make the U.S. economy productive and profitable.
Steeltown, March 11-June 9, 2000, featured large scale photo-montages and portraits by James Williams, documenting the steel industry in Hamilton, Ontario and in related industries in Mexico and Germany.
La Causa: A History of the United Farm Workers Union, June 26-October 27, 2000, traced the 36-year struggle of the UFW to obtain justice and dignity for all workers who toil in the fields of American agribusiness. This exhibit was part of the Detroit Humanities Project, a collaboration between the Walter P. Reuther Library, LA SED, Casa de Unidad, the Detroit Public Library, and the Center for Chicano-Boricua Studies at Wayne State University.
Blue Plate Specials, November 13, 2000-February 23, 2001, featured paintings by Barbara Savan, depicting the people the artist grew up with: waitresses, dishwashers, cooks, truck drivers, and stockyard workers who worked in and frequented Scoville's Cafe in East St. Louis, Missouri.
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Lives: 100 Years of Labor in New York City, March 12-June 24, 2001, showcased the working people of New York City. Featuring 120 photographs, the exhibit -- sponsored by the New York City Central Labor Council and New York University's Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives -- showed the men and women who, with cement and steel, needle and thread, blood, sweat and dreams, built New York City in the twentieth century.
Work Culture in a Changing World: Images of London's Smithfield Market and of Massachusetts' Cranberry Bogs, July 16-November 4, 2001, featured thirty-nine photographs by Beverly Conley depicting the work life of meat workers and cranberry workers that has been handed down from generation to generation.
SEIU/National Conference of Firemen & Oilers: A Celebration of Diversity at Work for America, November 19, 2001-February 1, 2002, featured thirty-eight contemporary photographs by labor journalist/photographer Fred J. Solowey depicting the work lives of NCFO members. NCFO represents 28,000 members in an array of occupations and industries in the commercial, railroad, and public sectors.
Witnesses and Warriors: The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-1937, February 19-May 31, 2002, featured twenty portraits in various media, and oral history excerpts of sit-down strikers, the men and women who worked in unison to improve the quality of their lives and, at the same time, altered the course of the industrial labor movement. Sponsored by the United Automobile Workers Region 1-C, the Foundation for Mott Community College, and Mott Community College.
Solidarity Forever! Graphics of the International Labor Movement, June 17-September 13, 2002, featured fifty-four posters that represent only a small sampling of the labor movement's graphic tradition to support social change. The Center for the Study of Political Graphics, a non-profit, educational archives, organized this traveling exhibit.
The Workings: Passages Through a Hidden Economy, September 30, 2002-January 31, 2003, featured forty-eight photographs by Guy Saldanha, depicting labor in principal manufacturing and natural resource industries in America at the turn of the century.
Theatre of Operations: A Look at Health Care in the U.S., February 17 through May 30, 2003, consisted of eleven portraits of health care workers in different job categories. It was originally commissioned by CEPA Gallery in Buffalo, New York. The images were installed on the inside and outside of buses and as "backlights" in the Buffalo subway system.
Bread Without Roses: Massachusetts Workers and Their Families, June 23 through October 3, 2003, consisted of a series of photographic/text panels depicting the stories of Massachusetts workers who are struggling in today's economy and fighting for their families -- for bread and roses, too. Tom Juravich (professor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst) and photographer Paul Shoul produced the exhibit. The project was funded through an appropriation of the Massachusetts legislature to the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Workforce Department and the Donahue Institute at the University of Massachusetts.
Si, Se Puede!/Yes, We Can! Janitor Strike in L.A., October 25, 2003 through February 6, 2004, was an exhibit that celebrated workers' solidarity in Los Angeles. Written through the eyes of a janitor's son, Diane Cohn's book was brought to life through a series of vivid illustrations by Francisco Delgado. First displayed at AFL-CIO headquarters in Washington, D.C., from April 23 through July 31, 2003, the exhibit coincided with 100,000 SEIU Justice for Janitors activists who began mobilizing for contract negotiations.
Martha Tabor Photographs, February 23 through April 30, 2004, featured forty-one black and white photographs depicting women in blue collar and public sector jobs, and midwifery. Tabor, a local photographer and sculptor, compiled the photographs from several different bodies of work. After a fifteen-year relationship with the Meany Center, Tabor donated this collection to the Center in March 2003. Martha Tabor died in January 2004 at her home in Washington, D.C.
Drawing the Line: The Labor Posters of Ricardo Levins Morales, May 10 through September 10, 2004, featured a collection of Morales' posters on labor history and labor organizing themes. The artist, a founding member of the Northland Poster Collective, emphasizes art and humor in his work, which appears in union halls and schools, homes and crisis centers, workplaces and newsletters, t-shirts and leaflets.
Albert Shanker: Labor's Educator, September 13 through December 10, 2004, told the story of one of the foremost labor leaders in the twentieth century. Considered canny, a maverick, and a tough negotiator, Shanker was also well respected and sought after for his views on public education, civil rights, and trade unionism. Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library, with funding and support from the American Federation of Teachers, developed this traveling exhibit to make the history of Albert Shanker and the AFT accessible to a wider audience.
Belle Glade, December 20, 2004, through April 30, 2005, featured eleven paintings by Carol Carter, an established St. Louis artist working primarily in large-scale watercolors and acrylics. The exhibition was based on the rural town of Belle Glade, Florida, and included large-scale watercolors of Belle Glade's landscape and agricultural workers.
