GOLDBERGER, Edward H. (photographer) ; [Unions] : [Photo Albums] : East St. Louis, Illinois: 1957. Photo album binder. Approximately 12" x 10." Maroon vinyl over boards with gilt stamped titles to front. Snap-ring metal binder inside holding 24 black and white photographs, each approximately 8" x 10" glossy darkroom prints to rectos and versos of 12 black paper leaves and beneath clear plastic overlays. Photographer's ink stamp to print versos. Outer album vinyl splitting at spine folds. Prints each about fine.

A presentation photo album documenting the October 5, 1957 funeral of Earl W. Jimerson (b. 1889), longtime International President of the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of North America. The funeral was held in Jimerson's native East St. Louis, Illinois and the ornate procession (detailed by a laid-in typed list of arrangements) included 27 limousines of Union and industry dignitaries and family. Photographs include portraits of mourners, lavish flower displays donated by various union locals, the hearse, the casket being carried, etc....

Jimerson was a prominent figure in 20th Century American labor heading a Union of some 300,000 workers spread across more than 500 locals from his election in 1942 until his death. He was also heavily involved in the racial politics of organizing during the Great Migration of the early 20th Century. He notably testified to the U.S. House Committee investigating the East St. Louis race massacre of 1917 when simply business secretary of the Meat Cutters local there, noting an influx of Black workers from the south, often used as strike breakers by large companies, were driving down wages and posed a direct threat to White workers' job security, a prevailing attitude often framed as the direct cause of massacres like the one at East St. Louis.

A professionally captured and intimate photographic record of the funeral of an important 20th Century figure in American labor.