| Dear Fellow Genealogist,
Labor Day is one of the more obscure observances on the American calendar. Historians can’t even agree who deserves credit for it.
But there’s consensus about the first Labor Day parade, which took place in 1882 in New York City. Along the route, a small group of marchers spontaneously swelled to a crowd of some 20,000.
Over the following decades, the call for workers’ rights grew in a similar way. What started as strikes by individual unions or trades grew into a nationwide movement for better working conditions. By the 1930s, activists secured many of the labor laws that we now take for granted: the eight-hour workday, the prohibition of child labor—and the first Monday of September as a holiday.
Many of the first Labor Day marchers wore their work clothes and brandished the tools of their trade. The “Photo Detective” article below shows you how to find occupational portraits of your ancestors and understand the work-related props in them. And today’s premium article looks at records of a wide-reaching program that put millions to work during the Great Depression: the Works Progress Administration.
Today is also “Labour” Day up north. We round out today’s newsletter with a guide to the 1931 census of Canada, which asked about (you guessed it) occupation. Learn more about your Canadian ancestors on Wednesday, when we’ll re-air our webinar on Canadian genealogy.
Kick up your feet today and spare a moment for the people who made work safer and fairer for all of us—whether (as the late great Dolly said) you work 9 to 5, 5 to 9, 3 to 11, or any shift in between.
On the job,
— Andrew, Editor of Family Tree Magazine
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| Labor Day: Work Clothes in Old Photos |
| The first Labor Day was held Sept. 5, 1882 in New York City, sponsored by the Central Labor Union. In honor of Labor Day, let’s take a look at a few occupational portraits. |
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