The collection consists of materials by or pertaining to artist and illustrator Giacomo Patri. Includes biographical materials about the artist as well as labor union pamphlets and handbooks for the Marine Cooks and Stewards Association, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 6, and the Pile Drivers, Bridge, Wharf and Dock Builders Local 34. Also includes a collection of Patri's work published in the San Francisco Chronicle from 1942 to 1943, news clippings with political cartoons by Patri dating from 1939, and examples of Patri's work as tattoos.

Giacomo Patri was born in Italy in 1898. As an infant he was stricken with polio causing him to use a cane throughout his life. In 1916, at the age of 18, he arrived in San Francisco and found work as a tailor, elevator operator, and in a mattress factory. In 1917 he helped found a literary and drama club in the basement of his parents' home. Despite his polio he took up fencing and in 1923 won third place in the Amateur Fencing League of America. He attended the California School of the Arts where he was mentored by Spencer Macky, Ralph Stackpole, Horatio Nelson Poole, and Gottardo Piazzoni. He landed an illustrators job in the San Francisco Examiner advertising department but soon left to return to school full time.

0.5 cubic feet (1 box and 1 oversized box)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Labor Archives and 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 and 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.

Collection is open for research.