?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(LABOR.) Papers of John Carter Robinson, head of the Colored Department of the Bureau of Employment in Pittsburgh. 41 items in one folder; generally moderate wear. Pittsburgh, PA and elsewhere, 1920-1941
John Carter Robinson (1894-1960) was a native of Pittsburgh. He received a degree in vocational education from the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and in 1920 was appointed superintendent of the Colored Department of the local State Bureau of Employment. This lot contains 26 professional letters to and from Robinson, including his 1920 appointment letter; his 1923 letter helping to craft a survey on "improvement of the existing conditions of Negroes in this state"; a program for the resulting "Conference on the Need of the Negro Population of Pennsylvania," 3 January 1924; a 12-page list of "present and former Negro employers" in western Pennsylvania, arranged by county, 1925; and a high school principal's 1926 letter of recommendation for a graduate who is "honest and responsible . . . worth considerable attention. . . . Could you get him lined up for Pullman work? I'm afraid he'll go into mill work."
The minutes of a 1925 meeting held at the Negro Section with managers of five large factories describes the progress at their plants. The minutes of a 1926 meeting with department store employment managers explain that they are hired as "porters, window washers, busboys, waiters, maids, and attendants." Also included are his article, "Vocational Guidance with the Colored Groups," in an issue of Vocational Guidance Magazine dated February 1926; and two uncaptioned photographs of a counselor we assume is Robinson.
A 1926 letter from pioneering social worker Forrester B. Washington asks Robinson for his thoughts on "this Mexican-Negro situation." Robinson responds that local employers "consider the Mexican as an unwelcomed temporarily injected laborer at present. . . . The railroad camp cooks have been slow in realizing what the Mexican likes to eat and has made the poor fellow homesick by feeding him sandwiches and pie. . . . White and black workers are becoming familiar and friendly. The injection of the Mexican into their ranks prevent the employees from unionizing."
Most of the collection relates to Robinson's work with the State Bureau of Employment from 1920 to 1926. A 1937 handbill promotes a craft demonstration at a Pittsburgh school mounted by the W.P.A. Division of Recreation, presumably with Robinson's involvement. 5 letters from 1941 find Robinson still with the W.P.A. and trying to find new employment in the education field. One letter of recommendation notes that Robinson had "patented a comb for straightening women's hair" and had spent years promoting his invention.
