- Archives & Manuscripts at Duke University Libraries Search Results

Images taken by Dotter while at New York School of Visual Arts, including street scenes, children and students, aftermath of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations.

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Strikes, 1970s-1980s Box 86

Images include UMWA and Teamsters; Eastern Airlines strike; Brotherhood of Maintenance of a Way (Baltimore); Sterns, Kentucky strike; Brookside Mine; South African coal protest.

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Telephone workers, 1980 Box 86

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Textile and brown lung, 1978 Box 86

Images of textile workers, brown lung patients and families, mill ruins. Locations include Greensboro, N.C.; Columbia, S.C.; Greenville, S.C.; Patterson, N.J.

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Woodworkers, 1980s-1990s Box 86

Images include lumber mills like Georgia Pacific (Crosset, Arizona); Montcure, N.C.; saw mill workers; logging truckers.

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Vista volunteer subjects, 1969-1970 Box 86

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Photography subject files, 1960s-2000s

Series consists of mostly 8x10" gelatin silver prints, arranged alphabetically by subject and used by Earl Dotter as stock images. Some with information on reverse, including more comprehensive captions, dates, and names of people pictured. The subjects present represent the American worker and labor movements, including United Mine Workers Association, UNITE, labor strikes, textile workers, as well as areas such as airline workers, commercial fishing, farmers, childcare, mining, and other causes and endeavors.

Collection Context

Earl Dotter photographs and papers, 1967-2023 62 Linear Feet (86 boxes; 2 oversize folders) 6.45 Gigabytes (1052 files)

Earl Dotter is a documentarian, photojournalist, and labor activist based in Maryland. Collection comprises 818 mounted black-and-white and color photographs documenting hazardous occupations, conditions for workers, and labor activism in the United States, and related materials such as photography subject files, work prints, digital image files, exhibit items, a large series of publications, and ephemera. A few historical photographs of coal mining settings by Russell Lee are also present. Specific occupations and topics represented by collection materials spanning many decades include: working conditions in the coal mining, garment, auto, poultry, public safety, logging, and fishery industries; child labor in the U.S.; conditions for migrant and Native American workers; the labor behind hand-harvested crops; medical care for workers; U.S. occupational safety standards and labor laws; and labor activism in support of people in hazardous occupations. There is also a series on the 9/11 Ground Zero site and first responders. Mount sizes range from 8x10 to 22x28 inches; most are 11x14 and 16x20. Acquired as part of the Archive of Documentary Arts at Duke University.

Collection Context