National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: America in Class: America in the 1920s: Labor & Capital
The National Humanities Center presents collections of primary resources compatible with the Common Core State Standards - historical documents, literary texts, and works of art - thematically organized with notes and discussion...
Victorian Web
Brown University: Victorian Web: Chadwick's Report on Sanitary Conditions
This site from the Victorian Web provides a summary of Edwin Chadwick's report on the sanitary conditions of the working class in 19th century England. Links are also provided for additional information on this subject.
US Department of Labor
U.s. Department of Labor: Labor in the Industrial Era
This interesting essay traces the growth of the Knights of Labor from a group that represented those in the shoe industry in Philadelphia to a nationwide union fighting for workers' rights. It also traces other union developments over...
Harvard University
Harvard Univ. Library: The Tide of Immigration: The Alien Contract Labor Law
This chapter from a 1916 book by Frank Julian Warne, titled The Tide of Immigration, outlines how the so-called native workers' jobs should be protected from the influx of immigrants. Read about the law that made it illegal for...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Houghton Mifflin Company: Teacher's Guide for Bread and Roses, Too
Katherine Paterson writes historical fiction for middle school aged learners. This book on the Bread and Roses strike includes good factual information about the strike woven into a personal story. This teacher's guide is a handy...
OpenStax
Open Stax: Industrialization: Building Industrial America on the Backs of Labor
Learn about the lives of the working class in Industrial America, what led to the formation of labor unions, and why labor unions were not successful despite strike actions.
OpenStax
Open Stax: Transformation in North 1800 50: Early Industrialization Northeast
Examines the transformation of work from artisan-centered to a mechanized workforce. Looks at the emergence of industrialization and the impact it had on production and on the worker experience, the development of the consumer society,...
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: Msu Libraries: Digital Collections: i.w.w.
Primary source documents related to the Industrial Workers of the World, a labor union that grew out of the effects of industrialization on the workforce. All materials can be downloaded.
Library of Congress
Loc: Working Conditions at the Westinghouse Works, 1904
Read about the progressive ideas the companies comprising the Westinghouse Works instituted in relation to their employees.
Other
Holmes Safety Association Bulletin: The Boys in the Breakers [Pdf]
A heartbreaking account of child labor in the coal mines at the turn of the century - 1904. Click on the article title in the table of contents to read this account published in 1904 by Peter Roberts.
University of Minnesota
The Fourteenth Amendment and the Rights Revolution: Muller v. Oregon
In the Progressive Era many states passed laws to protect workers and establish decent working conditions. Read the text of Muller v. Oregon, heard before the Supreme Court in 1908, that upheld Oregon's laws as constitutional.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Progress: The Meaning of the Machine: Human Machines
An excerpt from efficiency expert Frederick Winslow Taylor's The Principles of Scientific Management that describes how to make a human work like a machine; painter Thomas Anshutz's The Ironworkers' Noontime that suggests the cost of...
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Progress: The Meaning of the Machine: The New Housekeeping
An essay that urges women to bring the principles of scientific management found within industrial America into the home and housework.
Curated OER
History Matters: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820 Present
Called "Between a Rock and a Hard Place," this article details the history of American sweatshops. General information.
Country Studies US
Country Studies: The Struggles of Labor
This site discusses how for much of the latter half of the 1800s, the life of the common laborer was horrendous. Working in a unsanitary factory, for at least 10 hours a day, making far less than needed to survive, the struggles of the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: The Industrial Age in America
In this lesson plan from EDSITEment, students will discuss the significance of the labor movement, the industrialists involved and the attitude of the American people toward working conditions in the United States. Contains links to many...
Yale University
Yale New Haven Teachers Institute: Women at Work in Connecticut 1880 1920
An extensive lesson plan examining the role of women in the workplace in Connecticut in the late 1800s through World War I. Discussion questions are included.
PBS
Pbs: History Detectives: The Early Labor Movement
Brief summary of the early labor movement and the role that labor unions played.
Chicago History Museum
Encyclopedia of Chicago: Women's Trade Union League
Read about the Chicago branch of the Women's Trade Union League and its alliance between women workers and upper-class women who supported their cause.
Other
Lincoln Bicentennial Teacher Network: Northern Factory Workers [Pdf]
An information page on the rise of factory labor as the Industrial Revolution took hold in the North.
Other
Illinois Labor History Society: The Haymarket and Its Memorial
This site contains a description of the Haymarket Tragedy, and also includes many related topics.
Other
Lehigh University: The Molly Maguires
An interesting site compiled by a Lehigh University undergraduate student, regarding a secret mining organization known as the "Molly Maguires" who operated in the Pennsylvania coal mines during the latter part of the 19th century.
Tom Richey
Tom Richey: The Rise of Labor
The Industrial Revolution led to a demand for laborers to keep up with the demands for the creation of products. The slideshow illustrates how the labor force grew and adjusted during the early twentieth century and the impact of labor...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "The Life of a u.s. Industrial Worker" by Bird Brain History
A learning module that begins with "The Life of a U.S. Industrial Worker" accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. The text can be printed as a PDF or assigned online through free teacher...