Resources Documenting the 1919 Boston Police Strike

Search ArchiveGrid or WorldCat for archival materials that document the 1919 Boston Police Strike.

Abbott Lawrence Lowell photographic portraits, 1904, 1910?, 1923

Boston Social Club Register/Records: May include information about death dates for strikers who died between 1939-1970.

Calvin Coolidge papers, 1872-1933

Governor Calvin Coolidge and members of the Massachusetts State Guard during the Boston Police strike, [photograph] 1919

Harvard University. President's Office. Records of the President of Harvard University, Abbott Lawrence Lowell, 1909-1933

Letters from Arthur Howard Nichols to wife and daughters re family matters, business activities, social activities, etc. Includes letters, September 1919, re Boston police strike

Proclamation calling on every citizen of the Commonwealth to support the authority of the government against the striking policemen of Boston, September 24, 1919

Records of the Police Commissioner, January 1, 1921 to December 31, 1921, City of Boston, Volume 58

Reports on the Boston, Massachusetts Police Strike, 1919

Robert E. Grant diaries, 1901-1930

Robert E. Grant, [photograph] 1923

Samuel Dunn Parker Boston police strike papers, 1919-1920

Search Google Scholar, JSTOR, or ProQuest Central for articles about the 1919 Boston Police Strike.

Farmer, Brian. "The Boston Police Strike of 1919." The New American, 2011, pp. 36-40.

Fraser, Steve and Joshua B. Freeman. "In the Rearview Mirror: A Brief History of Opposition to Public Sector Unionism." New Labor Forum, vol. 20, no. 3, fall 2011, pp. 93-96.

Fry, Amelia R. and Charles T. Morrissey. "Oral History and Local History: Opportunities for Librarians." The Journal of Library History, vol. 4, no. 4, Oct. 1969, pp. 341-346.

Lynch, Shawn M. "'Red Riots' and the Origins of the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, 1915-1930." Historical Journal of Massachusetts, vol. 38, no. 1, spring 2010, pp. 61-81.

Lyons, Richard L. "The Boston Police Strike of 1919." The New England Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 2, Jun. 1947, pp. 147-168.

Norwood, Stephen H. "The Student as Strikebreaker: College Youth and the Crisis of Masculinity in the Early Twentieth Century." Journal of Social History, vol. 28, no. 2, winter 1994, pp. 331-349.

Pendergrass, Drew C. "The Boys in Crimson: Boston's Police Strikebreakers." The Harvard Crimson, 10 Nov. 2016.

Pfuhl, Erdwin H., Jr. "Police Strikes and Conventional Crime." Criminology, vol. 21, no. 4, Nov. 1983, pp. 489-504.

Russell, Francis. "The Strike that Made a President." American Heritage 14, no. 6, 1963: pp. 44.

Shaffer, Robert. "Where Are the Organized Public Employees? The Absence of Public Employee Unionism from U.S. History Textbooks, and Why It Matters." Labor History, vol. 43, no. 3, 2002, pp. 315-334.

Slater, Joseph E. "Public Workers: Labor and the Boston Police Strike of 1919." Labor History, vol. 38, no. 1, 1996, pp. 7-27.

White, Jonathan R. "Violence During the 1919 Boston Police Strike: An Analysis of the Crime Control Myth." Criminal Justice Review, vol. 13, no. 2, 1988, pp. 61-68.

Wilson, Ian Scott. "The Boston Police Strike of 1919." History Magazine, vol. 18, no. 2, Dec./Jan. 2017, pp. 6-7.

Brecher, Jeremy. “Nineteen Nineteen.” Strike!, Boston: South End Press, 1972, pp. 115-158.

Murray, Robert K. “When Policemen Strike.” Red Scare: A Study in National Hysteria, 1919-1920, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1955, pp. 122-134.

Slater, Joseph. "Labor and the Boston Police Strike of 1919." The Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History, Hoboken: Taylor and Francis, 2015, pp. 241-251.

Slater, Joseph E. “The Boston Police Strike of 1919.” Public Workers: Government Employee Unions, the Law, and the State, 1900-1962, Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004, pp. 13-38.

Search the Healey Library's catalog for books about the 1919 Boston Police Strike.

Nonfiction: Boston Police Strike of 1919

Nonfiction: Boston and United States History

Fiction

Annual Report of the Board of Police, 1885-2005

Annual Report of the Police Commissioner for the City of Boston, 1919

Boston Directories, 1789-1974 (with gaps)

The Boston police strike; two reports

Municipal register : containing rules and orders of the City Council, the city charter and recent ordinances, and a list of the officers of the City of Boston, 1919

The officers and the men, the stations without and within of the Boston Police, 1901

Officials and employees of the city of Boston and county of Suffolk with their residences, compensation, etc, 1919

Officials and employees of the city of Boston and county of Suffolk with their residences, compensation, etc, 1919 – Police Department Only

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. January (pp.1-121).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. February (pp.122-231).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. March (pp.232-370).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. April (pp.371-510).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner].May (pp.511-660).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. June (pp.661-776).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. July (pp.777-1047).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. August (pp.1048-1169).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. September (pp.1171-1422).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. October (pp.1423-1537).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. November (pp.1538-1647).

[Police records. vol. 56. Jan. 1, 1919 to Dec. 31, 1919 [manuscript] / Office of the Police Commissioner]. December (pp.1648-1757).

Search and browse all of the Healey Library's databases.

Search the following resources for historical maps of Boston.

Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States

David Rumsey Map Collection

Digital Public Library of America

Map Warper

Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library

Search and browse all of the Healey Library's newspaper databases.

Boston Public Library: Newspapers
The Boston Public Library provides access to historic newspapers online and in person.

"My most thrilling moment" series, Boston Traveler, 1916. This newspaper is held on microfilm at the Boston Public Library. Contact the BPL's Microtext Department at 617-859-2018 for assistance with accessing this newspaper.

Search the Healey Library's catalog, ScholarWorks, or WorldCat for theses and dissertations about the 1919 Boston Police Strike.

Alther, Robert Charles. The Boston Police Strike of 1919. Thesis, Indiana University, 1960.

Block, Sarah. Stratified Boston: The Brahmins, the Irish and the Boston Police Strike of 1919. Thesis, Bucknell University, 2010.

King, Joseph F. Police Strikes of 1918 and 1919 in the United Kingdom and Boston and Their Effects. Dissertation, City University of New York, 1999.

Koss, Frederick Manuel. The Boston Police Strike of 1919. Dissertation, Boston University, 1966.

Place, Eric. No Compromises: The Boston Police Strike of 1919. Thesis, Brandeis University, 2012.

Roberts, David Joseph. Police Reform and the Boston Police Strike of 1919. Thesis, The College of William and Mary, 1990.

Schrag, Zachary Moses. Nineteen Nineteen: The Boston Police Strike in the Context of American Labor. Thesis, Harvard College, 1992.

White, Jonathan Randall. A Triumph of Bureaucracy: The Boston Police Strike and the Ideological Origins of the American Police Structure. Dissertation, Michigan State University, 1982.

Hail and Farewell. Produced by Karen MacNutt, MacNutt Art Trust, 1995. Contact library.archives@umb.edu for more information.