This month's object is a tailor's notebook chosen by Lindsey Cole, Library Assistant
In the 18th century tailors were skilled workers making clothes by hand but by the 19th century lower quality mass produced clothing emerged and the workforce varied from skilled to semi-skilled and unskilled. Sweatshops emerged where unskilled workers, many of whom were women, did menial jobs such as pocket lining often working long hours for poor pay in unhealthy conditions. Tailors were represented at this time by a number of different unions many of which had taken strike action to fight for better pay and conditions - an example of which is shown in a leaflet on display this month in the hall of the Library.
Sweated Industries Exhibition 1906
Around the time that our tailor's notebook was being used a group of middle class reformers organized The Sweated Industries Exhibition which was held in 1906. An image from the exhibition catalogue which the library holds is shown in our hall. The aim of the exhibition was to raise public awareness of the poor working conditions of those within the ‘Sweated Industries' such as tailoring and to put pressure on the government to act. It was seen by many as successful as it laid the foundations for the 1909 Trade Boards Act which introduced the minimum wage to four industries one of which was tailoring.
Lindsey Cole, Library assistant
March 2015
Click here for more information about Tailors and tailors' unions
Sources for family history in the Library collection
Amalgamated Society of Journeymen Tailors [later the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses]
The following information can be found in annual reports
| Information | Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| Obituaries (members and wives) | Name, age and cause of death | 1870-1931 |
| Sick pay and benefits | Name and monies received | 1870-1931 |
| Superannuation benefits | Name and monies received | 1920-1950 |
| New members | Name and age | 1920 |
| Branch secretaries | Name and address | 1920-1926 |
Amalgamated Society of Clothiers' Operatives
The following information can be found in annual reports
| Information | Dates | |
|---|---|---|
| Obituaries | Name, age and cause of death | 1899-1909 |
| Strike and out of work pay | Name and monies received | 1898-1909 |
| Branch secretaries | Name and address | 1894-1909 |
Resources about tailors in the library collection
RH Tawney, The establishment of minimum rates in the tailoring industry under the Trade Boards Act of 1909 (1915) - Shelfmark: J16
History of the Working Tailors' Association, 34, Great Castle Street (no date) - Shelfmark: D15
Henry Phibbs Fry, The distressed needlewomen of London: a sermon by the Rev. Henry Phibbs Fry, A.B. preached in St. Paul's church, Bermondsey, on Sunday, May 12, 1850 (1850) - Shelfmark: S33
Andrew Ross (ed.), No sweat - fashion, free trade, and the rights of garment workers (1997) - Shelfmark: Q40
WDF Vincent, The pocket edition of the Cutter's practical guide to the cutting of all kinds of gentlemen's coats, vests, trousers, breeches and gaiters, overcoats, &c., ladies bodices jackets and skirts, juvenile, livery, military, naval and clerical garments (no date) - Shelfmark: H29
Alfred Gardner, Watch your fingers: an East End cutter's chronicle, 1958-1998 (2011) - Shelfmark: JS43
Tansy E Hoskins, Stitched up: the anti-capitalist book of fashion (2014) - Shelfmark: JS46