George A. Meyers (1912-1999) was a native of Lonaconing, MD, a small mining town in Allegany County. In the 1930s, he worked at the Celanese Corporation of America textile plant near Cumberland, MD and was instrumental in organizing the Textile Workers' Union of America local in 1935. In the late 30s he became increasingly active in the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). He was elected chapter president in 1941.
Following three years service during WWII in the Army Air Corps, Meyers returned to MD and became the Labor Secretary of the Communist Party of MD. As a result of his Communist affiliation and outspoken opposition to the Korean War, he was convicted under the provisions of the Smith Act in 1952 and spent 3 1/2 years in a federal prison. In 1965 he was elected Labor Secretary of the CPUSA, a position he held until his death in 1999.
The Collection includes nearly 15,000 books on Marxism, Leninism, Communism, Socialism, the Soviet Union, labor, unions, women's rights, and US civil rights. Manuscript materials, journals, photos, audio and video cassettes, posters and memorabilia were also donated. See Scope & Content.
Date Coverage: 1907-1999
Size: 190 linear feet
Scope: The collection is divided into 41 series, all of which are fully processed unless noted. Click here for series descriptions.
Provenance: The materials were transferred directly to the Ort Library from the Meyers' home in Baltimore, MD and his CPUSA office in New York City.
The Pamphlet Collection represents one of the most unique portions of the Meyers Collection. It consists of over 5,000 pamphlets, flyers and brochures representing the Communist Party, Socialist, and other leftist movements.
A large number of the pamphlets are from the former Soviet Union and the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Several of the pamphlets date from the 1920s and 1930s and deal with the Spanish Civil War and other contemporary issues.
Another large portion of the pamphlets deal with the period of McCarthyism in the United States during the 1950s.
The Pamphlet Collection is cataloged in the FSU Catalog.