Give-aways aren’t the only C.M.I.U. collectibles. Artifacts, remnants of their day-to-day official activities, also find homes with collectors.
Major categories of artifacts are: signs, letterhead, correspondence, dues books, convention badges and ribbons, publications such as the Constitution and by-laws and the long-running Cigar Makers’ Official Journal. The “Blue Label” Union stamps are also artifacts, but are thoroughly covered elsewhere.
This Exhibit is far from exhaustive, but will give you a taste of the range of items available to the alert collector.
C.M.I.U. Artifacts Gallery
A National Cigar Museum Exclusive
© Tony Hyman
Limited production on plywood 21” x 15” sign. Appears painted, but could be printed or decal.
Because most locals were small and signs were expensive, few CMIU signs are found today.
[11402]
Cardboard store sign emphasizing home industry. “We work and live here. We spend our money here. Keep the home industries operating.” Circa 1915.
[11405]
Van Horn signature on the Blue Label dates
this cardboard store sign to 1936-1944.
Sign distributed in Louisville, KY, area.
[11406]
Tin store and outdoor 8” x 14” sign aimed at organized labor, urging support of “your own.”
Not directly sponsored by the CMIU.
[11407]
Personal convention badge of International Union President George W. Perkins. Mid to late 1890s.
[11409]
Personal National convention badge of Union
First Vice-President Samuel Gompers.
Made by “David Handler Manufacturer of Badges and Rosettes, 201 S. Pearl Street, Albany, NY.”
[11417]
Member’s badge, Cigar Makers Union No. 150, Sioux City, Iowa, organized in 1881.
Badges-ribbons are 8” long.
[11410]
Ribbons are reversible so they can be worn backwards at member’s funerals.
[11411]
The Ottumwa, Iowa, member’s badge is 9” long.
Note the inconsistencies between the two badges. Cigar maker is spelled as one word and two, with and without the possessive apostrophe.
[11412]
Ribbons are reversible so they can be worn backwards at member’s funerals.
[11413]
5” badge was worn by a delegate to the 17th annual convention of the NY State Blue Label League of the Cigar Makers International Union held in Glens Falls, in 1916. With the Trust gone, the focus is on sanitary conditions, living wages and child labor.
By Bastian Bros., Rochester [11414]
Visitor’s badge for the 1927 C.M.I.U. convention held in Chicago. 4.5” long.
[11416]
Button-ribbon admitting the wearer to the reception at the 1900 Masquerade Ball held by giant Chicago Local #14 with over 1,000 members.
Made by Whitehead & Hoag, the country’s largest manufacturer of custom pin-back buttons.
[11421]
Simplest form of satin special purpose ribbons, worn with a straight pin. Left was made for a protest rally in Boston, center for a Boston publicity campaign, right for a member from St. Louis attending a regional meeting.
[11424]
C.M.I.U. pin and medallion with ribbon missing. Satin ribbons deteriorate if not properly handled. Ebay sellers have destroyed a number of ribbons by inadequately anchoring the heavy medallions, which swing like a pendulum during shipment.
[11419]
Unidentified medallion marked as from an annual convention held in Dayton, Ohio, in 1915.
Have not been able to identify.
[11452]
Constitutions and By-Laws from 1869, 1887,1917 and 1954. The NCM also owns 1912.
Other years of these 4” x 6” books are wanted.
[11473]
Receipt for repayment of one dollar loan by cigarmaker H. Schilling to Local 38
in Springfield, Illinois, in 1887. The Union provided loans under a variety of circumstances, including
moving to find work in another town.
Receipt not in the NCM collection.
Typical 4” x 5” C.M.I.U. member’s dues book.
[11447]
The treasurer of the Local pasted a stamp in the book upon receipt of the weekly 30¢ (1902). Each stamp is marked with the date paid.
[11448]
[11449]
The last page is reserved for special assessments. A 2/3 vote of the membership allowed special assessments to be collected. Each stamp represents 25¢ collected into the general fund.
[11450]
July 4th, 1911, celebration included decorating the entire building with patriotically colored bunting, and of course, the Blue Label. Legend has it that the CMIU label is blue because the two local cigar unions whose stamp preceded it were red and white...and blue was a compromise. [11486]
The C.M.I.U. loved a parade. This giant box was cow-pulled through the streets of Bangor, Maine, some time between 1910 and 1915.
The NCM always seeks CMIU parade photos.
[11476]
The Cigar Makers Official Journal published its first issue in 1875 and its last in 1972. Filled with a mix of important news and petty detail, they were
popular reading in some quarters and useful\
to today’s historian.
[11490]
The C.M.I.U. had a variety of standard letterheads, but this one is special, direct from the office of
G.W. Perkins, International Union President. There were hundreds of locals, how many envelopes?
Always best with interesting original contents.
[11494]
Official correspondence is collectible when it has interesting contents about problems, solutions, campaigns, or other issues.
[11548]
Any correspondence is more highly sought after
when complete with original envelope.
[11549]
More varieties of C.M.I.U. official letterhead.
[11495]
More varieties of C.M.I.U. official letterhead.
[11496]
Unusual envelope that chased the always-moving Sam Gompers...and never caught him. Sent by the newly formed Dunkirk, NY, local to Gompers in 1904 when he was CMIU VP and AFL President. That’s American Federation of Labor, not football.
[11455]
Original photo personally autographed
“For freedom, justice and humanity, yours faithfully, Sam’l Gompers.” What better signature from the most important man in labor history?
[11403]
Photo of Gompers, right, with John Burns and David Holmes of England in 1894.
[11498]
Original cabinet photo of Gompers on left was taken by J. E. Purdy of Boston in 1902. The photo on the right was taken in the early 1880’s, and was removed from a book where it was reproduced.
[11497]
LEFT: Original photo on left taken in England c1900. RIGHT: news wire photo of Gompers on the steps of NY City Hall after testifying before the Lockwood Comittee on whether courts should have power to review union decisions. “God save labor from the courts,” he said. Taken 1922. [11499]
A couple years later, he was dead, After becoming sick on a trip to Mexico, he returned to the states only to die in San Antonio.
Newspaper not in the NCM collection.
Cigar boxes with union themes are not common. Those that do exist are, more often than not, used by non-Union shops in an effort to fool smokers. The Gompers brand was created in 1914 and still around
in the 1930’s. Fact. C-218, Alton, Illinois, 1931.
[11773]
A few boxes have been found which picture Union owned buildings. This 1920 box is unusual in that the cigars were made in Salt Lake City.
[9546]
