This collection contains photographs of longshoremen at work and Oakland and Alameda waterfront environs from 1978 to 1986 taken by longshorman and photographer, Frank Silva. Silva's images document a significant period of change from break cargo handling to mechanized containerization and the advent of globalization. Silva's subjects are the men he worked alongside and the machinery and equipment used on the docks.

Frank Silva was born in Oakland, California, and began working on the Oakland waterfront in 1965 after serving in the US Navy. While working on the docks in the 1970s and 1980s, Silva was part of the Waterfront Writers and Artists, a group of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) members who held poetry readings and art shows celebrating dock work and the union experience. Silva photographed the Oakland and Alameda waterfronts from 1978 through 1988 and some of his photos were printed in The Waterfront Writers, published by Harper and Row in 1979.

51 Photographic Prints (b&w; 48 prints, 8 x 10 in.; 2 prints, 24 x 30 in.; 1 print, 4 x 6 in.)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and Research Center. Photographs are for research purposes only.

Collection is open for research.