The American Labor Who's Who (ALWW), published in 1925, is a directory of activists in the fields of trade unionism, immigrant rights, civil liberties, progressive and radical politics. Although it is typically considered a reference tool, like all directories it is essentially an analog database. The directory includes roughly 1,300 entries for U.S. activists and 300 additional non-US activists. Each entry is a telegraphic biography. Some provide only name, professional title and address at the time of publication. But many sketch rich life histories. Nearly all provide details on birth date and place, family background, education, migration, and work histories, as well as key organizations, events and publications.
As snapshot of the “labor movement” in 1925, the directory captures a movement in the midst of a fundamental transition. The expansion of mass production unions was still more than a decade in the future, but the innovative unions, educational institutions, and political groupings that would seed the new unions of the 1930s and 1940s are well represented. Including both long-serving elders and emerging leaders, the ALWW is a collective biography stretching back in time to the 1870s. And because many of those listed on its pages remained professionally active for decades after it was published, the ALWW reflects a group of political and social actors who would participate in the reshaping of American society well into the second half of the 20th century.
Despite these advantages, the ALWW has important limitations and blind spots. Women and African Americans are particularly under-represented. The compilers apparently did not ask about informants’ mothers’ occupation (although a few gave it anyway). Younger activists, new immigrants, and members of the Industrial Workers of the World and anarchist wings of the movement are also less visible here. In addition, a number of activists may have avoided contributing to the directory because their organizations had policies prohibiting "personal publicity," or because the "fear[ed] being victimized if they attracted attention" in the words of the editor.
There are also limits to the digital data, which is still a work-in-progress. Currently (as of April 2015), the data set contains only the entries from the United States. The original ALWW included a little over 300 entries from "Other Countries," some of whom had significant relevance for U.S. labor history. For instance William Haywood, a leader of the Industrial Workers of the World, fled the U.S. while under indictment and was living in the Soviet Union in 1925. Consequently, he's listed under "Other Countries." The wiki version of the ALWW also seems to be missing one entry (our fusion table database has 1,322 cases, the wiki includes 1,321 entries in the People category).
But on the plus side, the directory takes a broad view of "labor," including not only trade unionists, but also those engaged in "labor politics, workers' education, labor defense, cooperation, progressive farmers' groups," and radical politics.
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