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Finding Aid to the Mildred Edmondson Oral History MS 3523
MS 3523
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Table of contents
Title: Mildred Edmondson oral history
Date (inclusive): 1976
Collection Number: MS 3523
Creator:
Edmondson, Mildred DuBose
Physical Description:
2 folders
(0.2 Linear feet)
Repository:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105
415-357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Abstract: Contains a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall's
1976 interviews with Mildred Edmondson documenting her work with the California
State Employment Service and the War Manpower Commission in the 1930s and 1940s,
with an emphasis on the role of women and trade unions in the war industries during
World War II.
Language of Material: Collection material is in English.
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Copyright has been assigned to California Historical Society. Materials in these
collections are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and may not
be used without permission of California Historical Society. Use may be restricted
by terms of CHS gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, licensing
terms, and trademarks. All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise
use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of the Library
and Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678
Mission Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Restrictions also apply to digital
representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to
research and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], Mildred Edmondson Oral History, MS 3523, California
Historical Society.
The original sound recording from which the Edmondson oral history was transcribed is
stored separately on cassettes 32.1-32.5.
The following oral histories were prepared by Lucille Kendall in her effort to
document the lives of women labor activists and radicals for the California
Historical Society's "Women in California Collection":
Clemmie Barry Oral History, MS 3251
Dorothy Elizabeth De Losada Oral History, MS 3522
Elaine Black Yoneda Oral History, MS 3524
Helene Powell Oral History, MS 3518
Katherine Rodin Oral History, MS 3517
Louise Lambert Oral History, MS 3520
Marion Brown Sills Oral History, MS 3525
Violet Orr Oral History, MS 3516
The following oral histories were prepared under the auspices of "The Twentieth
Century Trade Union Woman: Vehicle for Social Change," a project of the Institute of
Labor and Industrial Relations, The University of Michigan-Wayne State
University:
Angela Ward Oral History, MS 3536
Caroline Decker Gladstein Oral History, MS 3025
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog.
California. State Employment Service.
United States. War Manpower Commission.
Women--Employment--California.
World War, 1939-1945--War work--California.
Oral histories.
This oral history was transcribed from four interviews with Mildred Edmondson
conducted by Lucille Kendall for the California Historical Society in 1976.
Mildred Edmondson was born in 1914 in Oroville, California. She earned a bachelor's
degree in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in the mid-1930s,
and a master's degree in rehabilitative counseling from San Francisco State
University in 1957. She began working for the California State Employment Service in
1937. Under the auspices of that agency, Edmondson conducted a survey of women
employed in the war industries, compiling a trade union directory for women around
1941. In 1942, she accepted a job as a trade union liaison with the United States
War Manpower Commission, working with unions to assign workers to high-priority
projects and industries during World War II. She was also a member of the United
Federal Workers. After the war, Edmondson worked for the Veterans Counseling Center
at the University of California, Berkeley; the Alameda County Central Labor Council,
AFL-CIO; and the Vocational Rehabilitation Service.
This oral history collection contains a transcribed copy of Lucille Kendall's 1976
interviews with Mildred Edmondson; an interview history and index; and miscellaneous
papers, mostly consisting of documents from the United States War Manpower
Commission collected by Edmondson when she worked for that agency as a trade union
liaison in the 1940s.
The Edmondson interviews were conducted under the auspices of the California
Historical Society's "Women in California Collection" as part of an oral history
project documenting the lives of women labor activists and radicals in
California.
The interviews shed light on Edmondson's personal and professional life, including
her work with the California State Employment Service and the War Manpower
Commission in the 1930s and 1940s. In particular, Edmondson discusses the role of
women and trade unions in the war industries during World War II.