Conditions Governing Access
Conditions Governing Use
Preferred Citation
Processing Information
Related Materials
Arrangement
Biography of Robert W. Cherny
Content Description
Title: Robert W. Cherny research files
Creator:
Cherny, Robert W.
Collection number: larc.ms.0433
Accession number: 2023/001
Repository:
Labor Archives and Research Center
J. Paul Leonard Library, Room 460
San Francisco State University
1630 Holloway Ave
San Francisco, CA 94132-1722
(415) 405-5571
larc@sfsu.edu
Languages: Languages represented in the collection: English.
Extent:
46 Cubic Feet
(89 boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1872-2022
Abstract: Robert W. Cherny is a U.S. historian,
Professor emeritus of History at San Francisco State University, and a co-founder of the
Labor Archives and Research Center, also at San Francisco State University. His research
files contain materials gathered by Cherny in the course of his research for biographies of
the Russian-American painter Victor Arnautoff and the Australian-born U.S. labor leader and
longtime head of the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU) Harry
Bridges, as well his research on Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA)
activists in twentieth-century San Francisco. Materials include reproductions and
translations of archival materials from the United States, Russia, and Australia, journal
articles and book chapters, and over 100 oral history interviews with labor organizers,
attorneys, and communist activists.
Physical Location: Collection stored offsite: advance
notice required for use.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyrighted. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that
allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owner. In addition, the
reproduction of some materials may be restricted by terms of gift or purchase agreements,
donor restrictions, privacy and publicity rights, licensing and trademarks. Works not in the
public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner.
Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Robert W. Cherny Research Files, larc.ms.0433, Labor Archives
& Research Center, San Francisco State University.
Processing Information
Processed by Devin McGeehan Muchmore in 2023.
Cherny delivered the collection in 29 file cartons and 6 plastic file drawers, as well as
several audio cassette storage containers and boxes. A few posters arrived separately,
without housing. The file cartons were all labeled by Cherny according to broad topics
("HB;" "SF History;" "Communists;" and "Arnautoff.") and sometimes subtopics. The broad
topics have been retained as series, with narrower topics informing the subseries.
Nearly all paper materials arrived in folders. All folders were replaced with acid-free
folders. The majority of folder titles were retained.
The audio cassettes and tape reels were kept in the individual cases they arrived in.
The processor consulted with Cherny regarding arrangement and the identification of some
files throughout processing.
Related Materials
LARC holds numerous collections related to Cherny, Harry Bridges, the ILWU, and the
Communist Party. Among these collections are: Robert Cherny Papers (larc.ms.0394); Founders
of Labor Archives and Research Center Oral Histories (larc.oh.founders); Harry Bridges and
Noriko (Nikki) Sawada Bridges Flynn Photograph Collection (larc.pho.0023); Harry Bridges
Collection (larc.ms.0062); Noriko (Nikki) Sawada Bridges Flynn Papers (larc.ms.0189);
International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. Local 6 (San Francisco, Calif.)
Records (larc.ms.0413); Norman Leonard Papers (larc.ms.0027); Sam Kagel Arbitration and
Mediation Case Files (larc.ms.0317); and California Surveillance Collection
(larc.ms.0124).
Arrangement
The collection is arranged in four series, following Cherny's own organization: Series 1:
Victor Arnautoff; Series 2: Harry Bridges; Series 3: San Francisco Reds; and Series 4: San
Francisco History.
Biography of Robert W. Cherny
Robert W. Cherny (born 1943) is a U.S. historian, Professor emeritus of History at San
Francisco State University, and a co-founder of the Labor Archives and Research Center, also
at San Francisco State University.
He is the author or co-author of eight books:
Populism, Progressivism, and the
Transformation of Nebraska Politics, 1885-1915
(1981),
San Francisco:
Presidio, Port, and Pacific Metropolis
(with William Issel, 1981),
A
Righteous Cause: The Life of William Jennings Bryan
(1985),
San Francisco,
1865-1932: Politics, Power, and Urban Development
(1986),
American Politics
in the Gilded Age, 1868-1900
(1997),
Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of
Art
(2017),
Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend (2023), and
San Francisco Reds: Communists in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1919-1958
(forthcoming 2024). He is co-editor of
American Labor and the Cold War: Unions,
Politics, and Postwar Political Culture
(with William Issel and Keiran Taylor,
2004) and
California Women and Politics: From the Gold Rush to the Great
Depression
(with Mary Ann Irwin and Ann Marie Wilson, 2011). He also co-authored
two textbooks, an online book, and numerous book chapters and articles.
Cherny grew up and attended primary and secondary school in Beatrice, Nebraska. In 1965, he
graduated with a B.A. (with distinction) from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He went on
to graduate school at Columbia University, earning an M.A. in 1967 and Ph.D. in 1972, both
in history.
In 1971, Cherny took a position as Instructor in the Department of History at San Francisco
State University. The following year, he became Assistant Professor, moving up to Associate
in 1977 before becoming a Full Professor in 1981. He spent a five year term as department
chair (1987-1992), in addition to serving as Acting Dean of the School of Behavioral and
Social Sciences in 1984-1985 and Interim Dean of Undergraduate Studies in 2005-2008. Cherny
retired from teaching in 2012.
In 1985, Harry Bridges, the retired president of the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union (ILWU), and Nariko (Nikki) Sawada Bridges, a writer, activist, and Harry's wife, asked
Cherny if he would write Harry Bridges' biography. Cherny agreed, conducting oral history
interviews with Harry Bridges and over 70 of Bridges' family members, friends, trade
unionists and other left-wing activists and visiting dozens of archives. In 1996, he served
as Distinguished Fulbright Lecturer at the Lomonosov Moscow State University, allowing him
to conduct research in the newly accessible records of the Communist Party of the Soviet
Union. He ultimately published
Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend in
2023.
Cherny's research for Bridges' biography spawned two additional books. The first is a
biography of the Russian-American painter Victor Arnautoff, published as
Victor
Arnautoff and the Politics of Art
in 2017. The second is a study of members of the
Communist Party of the United States in California, titled
San Francisco Reds:
Communists in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1919-1958
.
Content Description
The Robert W. Cherny research files contain materials gathered by Cherny in the course of
his research for
Victor Arnautoff and the Politics of Art (2017),
Harry Bridges: Labor Radical, Labor Legend (2023), and
San Francisco
Reds: Communists in the San Francisco Bay Area, 1919-1958
, as well as reference
files on the social and political history of San Francisco in the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth centuries.
The majority of the collection consists of reproductions of archival materials from across
the United States, as well as the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History and
archives in Australia. These sources document the broad sweep of Harry Bridges' activities
as a labor leader in the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) and the
International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union (ILWU), including his participation in
the San Francisco 1934 waterfront and general strikes; Victor Arnautoff's biography,
evolving artistic practice, and the political controversies surrounding his artwork; and the
activism of over 50 San Francisco-based Communist Party of the United States of America
(CPUSA) members between 1919 and the late 1950s, including their involvement in the labor
movement and relationships with the national party and the Comintern.
Cherny's research files include recordings and transcripts from over 100 oral history
interviews with labor organizers, attorneys, and communist activists.
Also included are student papers, writings by other scholars, and newsletters related to
the histories of maritime labor and American communism.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Longshoremen's Strike, San Francisco, Calif., 1934
Stevedores -- Labor unions -- United States.
Communists -- United States.
Oral histories.
Bridges, Harry
International Longshore and Warehouse
Union
Arnautoff, Victor Michail,
1896-1979
Communist Party of the United States of
America