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Putting Labor on D.C.’s Map |
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Forget a tip of the hat. A huge round of applause is in order for Chris Garlock, editor of the Metropolitan Washington Council’s Union City, for launching an interactive labor map.
The just-launched D.C. Labor Map lets users find current and historic labor sites in Washington, D.C., along with union hotels, restaurants, international and local union organizations and labor art.
Whether you are using it for a virtual tour of labor in the nation’s capital or planning a real-life walking tour, the map offers a bunch of great information.
Click on the legend prompt to view and choose a category from a list that includes labor art, union struggles, union restaurants and historic makers. Selecting “labor art” will pop up 11 sites around town where you can take in murals, sculptures and other artwork dedicated to workers and their jobs.
For example, you can get directions to murals from Depression-era artist Harold Weston.
One of the best-kept labor and art secrets in D.C. (and there seem to be many) are the murals of Harold Weston. Depicting the construction of government buildings and office activities, these murals are excellent examples of New Deal art projects of the 1930s; they were designed to represent the recovery being made from the Great Depression.
Labor history buffs can check out memorials, statues and other sites honoring early labor leaders, including the “Abe Lincoln of the Seas,” Andrew Furuseth, who founded the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, an affiliate of the Seafarers (SIU); and Samuel Gompers, founder of the American Federation of Labor. Also, somewhere in the National Archives, we understand there is a packet of Joe Hill’s ashes. Union hotels, eateries, and national and international offices are just a click away.
Kudos also to Jon Garlock, Lisa Garlock, Saul Schniderman and Peter Winch who helped put labor on the D.C. map.
2 Comments
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Great job, Chris! When I get to DC to celebrate passing the Employee Free Choice Act I’ll check out some union sites. Thanks
Great job, Chris. I was on vacation last summer in the Michigan Upper Peninsula. I kept hearing, even from a guide for a tour of a closed copper mine, that either there had never been unions there or that they all closed when the workers voted for a union. Miners without unions? I didn’t believe it. I finally found a book with the actual history and found out the copper miners had a long history with the Western Federation of Miners, Mine and Mill, and then the Steelworkers. A WFM strike where a fire at a miners children’s Christmas party killed a large number of people was memorialized in a song by Woody Guthrie. So much of our history has been stolen and repressed–thanks for putting us back on the DC map. We should do this in every city, and compile it in a book.
–Jeff Crosby