Early & Splendid Celebration of Labor

(RAILROAD BROTHERHOOD). (BROTHERHOOD OF LOCOMOTIVE FIREMEN OF NORTH AMERICA). Benevolence: Sobriety: Industry: Our Brotherhood. Elephant folio handsomely colored lithograph with eight fine vignettes, plus a portrait of George Stephenson, railroad pioneer, and a benevolent winged angel apparently riding on the front of a locomotive emanating a ring of smoke about her figure. [Cincinnati, Ohio]: Strobridge Lithographing Co. (copyright by S.M. Stevens), [1885]. Some staining in margins, but in fine condition (shipped with or without excellent period walnut frame). $750.00

A wonderful paen to labor, executed with fine craftsmanship, and produced within 12 years of the organization of the brotherhood, (organized Dec. 1, 1873).

"A great deal of labor history is symbolized...[and] will reward study...The little scenes in the poster stress the danger of the trainman's job, the fine funeral the member may expect, and the benefits his widow will receive. The lodge meeting at the bottom center is a reminder of the fraternal and social aspect of these organizations. The four original brotherhoods were the engineers, dating back to 1863; the conductors, 1868; the firemen, 1873; and the trainmen, 1882. For years in the nineteenth century they were the aristocrats of labor both as to pay and status, which placed them more in the lower professional than in the working class. Because of their power, and disinclination to strike, they won most of their requests from railroads...." --Jensen, The American Heritage History of Railroads in America, pp. 160-[161], with a full page color reproduction of a 1915 poster for the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, produced in Oneonta, New York, self-evidently based upon the style and symbol of the poster of 1885 we offer, changed mainly in age-appropriate detail, also deleting the portrait of George Stephenson, but featuring the same mottoes of Sobriety, Benevolence and Industry. Both posters include a vignette of the dangers of locomotive life as well, each showing a train wreck.

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen is an extremely important organization in the history of American labor relations, one of the original "Big Four" brotherhoods of railroad workers, founded by labor leader Joshua Leach during the Panic of 1873.

Originally, the brotherhood functioned as a mutual aid society and fraternal organization, was well as a labor union. Many important figures in the history of U.S. labor were involved with the Firemen, most notably Eugene V. Debs. At age fourteen, in 1870, Debs began work as a fireman on the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad, and although laid off in 1874, he became extremely active in the brotherhood. In 1875 he helped found a local lodge of the brotherhood in Terre Haute.

Following the strikes and labor upheaval of 1877, Debs increased his brotherhood activity. At the annual convention of the brotherhood he delivered a conservative speech criticizing strikes and violence as labor tactics. The speech was so well received that Debs was appointed editor of the Locomotive Firemen's Magazine, a position which allowed him to try out many of his ideas about worker cooperation and other labor issues. In 1880, Debs became general secretary and treasurer of the brotherhood.

A powerful early expression of the sense and sensibility of labor brotherhood, in wonderful condition.