Labor law specialist Clara Mortenson Beyer began her career for the United States government as executive assistant on the War Labor Policies Board in 1918. She was executive secretary for the District of Columbia Minimum Wage Board from 1919 to 1921. In the Department of Labor she served as economist for the Children's Bureau, 1928-1931, as director of the industrial division, 1931-1934, as associate director, 1934-1957, and from 1957 to 1958 as acting director of the Bureau of Labor Standards. She then served as advisor in the International Cooperation Administration, 1958-1961, and the Agency for International Development, and in various capacities with the Organization of American States, the International Labour Organisation, and other federal, international, and women's agencies. The collection includes correspondence, articles, reports, business records, pamphlets, clippings, and photographs from her professional and personal life.

Economist and government consultant Elisabeth (Miller) Owen Burger was born in Naples, Italy, in 1923, the daughter of labor administrators Frieda S. Miller and Charles Kutz and was raised primarily by Miller and Miller's close friend, labor organizer Pauline Newman. In 1947, Burger joined the staff of the International Labour Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, as a research assistant, remaining in this position through 1949. The collection includes diaries, writings, and correspondence with Miller and Pauline Newman. The collection also includes Newman and Miller's letters to each other and their correspondence with others; documents related to Miller's involvement with the first General Assembly of the United Nations; and writings by Miller and Newman; a scrapbook on her career kept by Newman.

Josephine Clara Goldmark and Pauline Dorothea Goldmark were born in Brooklyn. Both sisters graduated from Bryn Mawr, were associated with the National and New York Consumers' Leagues, investigated industrial working conditions particularly for women workers, and were published authors. J. Goldmark researched labor laws on hours of work for Supreme Court justice Louis Brandeis, was on the committee investigating the Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, advocated upgrading the standard of education for nurses, and worked with Florence Kelley in the 1920s to safeguard workers against radium poisoning. P. Goldmark investigated conditions in the canneries in New York State, was assistant director of social research for the Russell Sage Foundation, a member of the industrial board of the New York State Labor Department (1913-1915), executive secretary of the Committee on Women in Industry during World War I, manager of the Women's Service Section of the U.S. Railroad Administration (1918-1920) for which she toured the country studying working conditions of women and children, an expert in the research dept. at American Telephone and Telegraph on women's employment and health problems (1919-1939), vice-chair of the New York City Child Labor Commission, and director of the National Consumers' League.

A physician and the first woman professor at Harvard University, Hamilton also worked as a resident researcher at Hull House, a researcher of industrial poisons for the U.S. Department of Labor, and a member of the League of Nations Health Organization and of President Hoover's Committe on Social Trends. Hamilton spent much of her career studying medical risks in industrial working conditions and a leader in occupational health. Correspondence, articles, speeches, notes, clippings, and awards document Hamilton's professional life and interests. The largest series contains her medical papers, including articles and notes on chemical compounds, their hazards in the workplace, and industry protest over her findings.

Elinore Herrick served as director of the New York-New Jersey-Connecticut region for the National Labor Relations Board (1934-1942); personnel and labor relations director for Todd Shipyards Corporation (1942-1945); and personnel director and an editorial staff member for the New York Herald Tribune (1945-1955). The collection's materials largely concern her career and such subjects as labor, women as writers, and the National Labor Relations Board. The collection also contains material on cases tried by the NLRB, the Board's labor-regulating acts, and investigations; reports on Todd Shipyards personnel, some of whom were women; information about Herald Tribune labor disputes in which Herrick was involved; and on labor relations courses Herrick taught.

A lawyer and government official, Humphrey specialized in labor-management relations; she was a member of the National Labor Relations Board (1939-1951), with the Wage Stabilization Board of the Economic Security Agency (1951-1952), and then in private practice. The bulk of the collection is speeches, 1949-1963, with correspondence about those speeches, some drafts, and printed copies. Other papers and correspondence pertain to conferences in which Humphrey took part and to organizations and associations (especially the American Bar Association's Section on Labor Relations Law) to which she belonged.

Public official and writer, Johnson worked for the Women's Educational and Industrial Union, Boston (1910-1918), a member of the Massachusetts Minimum Wage Commission (1918-1919), assistant commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Labor and Industries (1919-1932), minimum wage director of the State of New Hampshire (1933-1935), worked at the International Labor Organization in Geneva, (1935-1939), was acting director of the Washington office of the ILO (1939-1943), and special assistant to Ambassador John Gilbert Winant at the Court of St. James (1943-1946). See also the Additional Papers of Ethel McLean Johnson.

Carol Riegelman Lubin received a B.A. from Smith College where she graduated with honors in 1930, and an M.A. in international relations from Columbia University in 1933. In 1935, Lubin was hired by the International Labour Organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. She also worked as a liaison to the United Nations preparing reports on UN economic activities for the General Assembly, consulting with UN staff, and serving as a delegate. Her major work on the role of women in the International Labour Organization was published by Duke University Press in 1990. Collection includes biographical information, personal and professional correspondence, reports, writings, speeches, and photographs; primarily documenting Lubin's work with the International Labour Organization and other professional activities.

Labor administrator and official, Miller was appointed director of the Division of Women in Industry and Minimum Wage at the New York State Department of Labor in 1929. In 1938 she was appointed Industrial Commissioner of New York, from 1943 to 1944 she was special assistant on labor to the U.S. ambassador in London, and 1944 to 1953, director of the Women's Bureau. She then worked for the International Labour Organisation conducting surveys of working conditions and opportunities for women and children in Asia and the Middle East, represented the International Alliance of Women at the United Nations, 1957-1958, and was United Nations representative in the International Union for Child Welfare, a European organization, until 1967. Never married, Miller adopted a daughter in 1923, and for many years lived in New York City with labor union official Pauline Newman. See also the Additional Papers of Frieda S. Miller

Odencrantz was an investigator in industrial relations for the Russell Sage Foundation, 1908-1915; supervised the New York State and the United States Employment Bureaus on the wartime employment of women in industry, 1915-1919; and was personnel director for a New York City silk ribbon company, 1919-1924. In 1922 she helped organize the International Industrial Relations Association and attended its congresses as United States delegate in 1922, 1925, and 1928. From 1927 to 1936 she was Director of the Employment Center for the Handicapped in New York, helped organize and train new staff for the New York State Division of Placement and Unemployment Insurance. The collection contains material related to Odencrantz's work involving hiring handicapped workers, employment of women and children, training of women, and personnel management in the silk industry.

Lawyer and government official, Angela Parisi practiced privately, taught at Marymount College and Brooklyn College, and was assistant corporation counsel of New York City (1946-1954), vice-chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee, (1949-1955), chairman of the state's Workers' Compensation Board from 1955, and president of the Brooklyn Women's Bar Association, (1956-1957). The bulk of the papers pertains to Parisi's chairmanship of the New York State Workers' Compensation Board, 1955-1961, most of it correspondence, but also speeches, clippings, news releases, and photos.

Social reformer Frances Perkins graduated from Mount Holyoke College (1902), was a teacher and a volunteer for social organizations, and worked for various agencies concerned with labor issues. In 1933 she became the first woman appointed to the US President's cabinet when she was appointed Secretary of Labor by Franklin D. Roosevelt. This collection includes materials relating to her work as Secretary of Labor as well as Women in Industry, An Historical Survey by Perkins (1937). See also materials relating to Perkins in the Woman's Rights Collection.

Active in the fields of labor, education, women's rights, and consumer affairs, Peterson was involved in union organizing, worker education, and labor and consumer legislation lobbying and served in several positions in the U.S. Department of Labor. Peterson was also legislative representative for the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (1969-1970), consumer adviser to Giant Food, Inc. (1970-1977), and representative to the United Nations Economic and Social Council for the International Organization of Consumers Unions (1983-1993). The collection contains personal and professional correspondence, memos, reports, speeches, songs, engagement calendars, articles, clippings, biographical material, photos, and memorabilia.

Justine Wise Polier was a lawyer and judge, and served on the counsel in the Workmen's Compensation Division of the New York State Department of Labor from 1928 to 1935. Polier spent much of her early career in labor law and would later expand to working in child welfare. The professional papers include correspondence and reports describing her labor activism and early career as a labor lawyer. While the bulk of the collection focuses on Polier's child welfare work, Series I contains material dealing with her early labor activism.

Mary Winslow worked for the Women's Bureau of the United States Department of Labor as a social worker for ten years beginning during World War I, writing studies on women in industry and the effects of labor legislation on women's employment. She was then an officer of the National Women's Trade Union League, and U.S. representative on the Inter-American Commission on Women (1939-1944). The collection contains correspondence; notes and manuscripts of political speeches and of articles on the employment of married women and the Inter-American Commission of Women; reports of the International Labor Organization Conference of American States held in Havana in 1939; drafts of "Woman at Work," an autobiography of Mary Anderson as told to Winslow; and correspondence concerning publication of the autobiography.