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Inventory of the Stanley Lathen Collection, 1928-1995
1997/075
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Title: Stanley Lathen Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1928-1995
Accession number: 1997/075
Creator:
Lathen, Stanley
Extent: .5 cubic feet
Repository:
San Francisco State University. Labor Archives & Research Center
San Francisco, California 94132
Shelf location: For current information on the location of these
materials, please consult the Center's online catalog.
Language:
English.
Collection is open for research.
Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives & Research Center. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from materials must be submitted in writing
to the Director of the Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the Labor Archives & Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended
to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be
obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Stanley Lathen Collection, 1997/075, Labor Archives & Research Center,
San Francisco State University.
These records were donated by Stanley Lathen in June 1997. They were processed by Kim
Klausner in July of that year.
Stanley Lathen is a labor union and political activist living in Vallejo. Lathen (known as
Stanley Sapp until the early 1950s when he changed his name) was the secretary-treasurer, the
executive officer, for the Retail Clerks International Association, Local 373; President of the
Plasterers' Union, Local 631; and one of the founding Directors of the A.F. of L. Ball Park
Board (Athletic Friends of Labor). He was active in Democratic Party politics and with the
Congress of California Seniors. An oral history conducted by Harvey Schwartz is at the Labor
Archives.
The collection is comprised of documents and photographs from Lathen's labor and political
activities in Vallejo. It ranges from a 1928 Plasterers' & Cement Finishers' Union
Constitution to a 1995 holiday card from Bill and Hillary Clinton. Also included are brief
letters to and from politicians Lathen supported, including Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt,
Henry Wallace, Estes Kefauver, Edmund "Pat" Brown, and Alan Cranston in the
"Correspondence - Political" folder. "The Plasterer" folder preserves two issues of the
Plasterers' Union publication that contain letters from Stanley Sapp. There are undated papers
opposing the use of sheetrock in construction in the "Lathing and Plastering" folder.
The collection includes photographs from most of the groups Lathen worked with including
many of the Athletic Friends of Labor Ball Park and the Vallejo Builders, its home team.
National figures, such as Gene Autry and Lady Bird Johnson, appear in some of the photos.
Researchers interested in labor in Vallejo in the 1950s through 80s, including unions for retail
clerks, plasterers, butchers, and builders, will find material here. Other topics are labor's
relationship to local and state politics, especially the Democratic Party; labor's commitment to
community projects such as the ball park; and the growth of the political influence of retired
trade unionists through its Congress of Seniors.
Relocated to the Stanley Lathen Photograph Collection
- "A.F. of L. Ball Park" 194?, n.d.
- "California Federation of Labor" 1965, n.d.
- "Central Labor Council" 194?, 1959, n.d.
- "Democratic Party" 1956-1969, n.d.
- "LLPE Fundraisers" 194?, 1959
- "Plasterers' & Cement Masons' Union" 1936, 1940
- "Retail Clerks Union" 1953-1975, n.d.
- "Retirement Dinner, Everett Nelson" n.d.
Relocated to Photograph Collection 1
- "California State Federation of Labor" OVERSIZE 1956-1967
- "Retail Clerks Union" OVERSIZE 1959, 1964