Cloakmaker

A Cloak maker worked in the garment industry,[1] often in an enterprise whose workers were represented by a union.[2]

In the 1920s, there were more than 50,000 people employed as cloakmakers.[2]

Cloakmakers' parade, NYC, 1916

Much of this industry was centered in NYC.[3] While most of the cloakmakers were Jewish women,[4]: p.191 [5][6] the next largest group, although much smaller in number, were Italian women.[7][8][9]

Cloakmakers were a part of those known as clothing-workers, including those who made cloaks, suits and skirts.[2][10]

Other areas where this industry was strong included Chicago[11] and Cincinnati.[12]

Unions

Suffragist Theresa Malkiel organized a union of cloakmakers in 1892.[4]: p.191  Other areas of the needle trade[13] were not unionized until years later,[14] of whom in 1912 over 80% were Jewish.[15]

Cloakmaker, Suffragist, labor activist and author[16] Theresa Serber Malkiel, who organized the Infant Cloakmaker's Union of New York in 1892

This occupation involved making or repairing garments that contained animal fur. The high end of this profession focused on fur coats. A 1915 New York Times article about 75,000 garment workers said "Cloakmakers take the lead."[17]

The garment industry's strikes were neither rare nor long-lasting.[18][19]

References

1. Miller 1978, p. 190.
2. "Cloak Makers Accept Plan for Conference". The New York Times. April 27, 1921. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
3. 60,000 to 70,000 cloakmakers in New York City in 1910 Oscar Handlin; Charles Reznikoff. Introduction: Louis Marshall, Champion of Liberty. p. xxi.
4. Miller 1978.
5. Hadassa Kosak (2000). Cultures of Opposition: Jewish Immigrant Workers, New York. p. 202. The preponderance of Jews among cloakmakers ... 1885
6. contrast two strikes: 20,000 "mostly female" vs. a different strike in the same 1909/1910/1911 period: 1,200 men in one strike and 2,000 men in another. "History of the ILGWU: Early Struggles".
7. S. Luconi (Summer 2010). "Crossing Borders on the Picket Line: Italian-American Workers and the 1912 Strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts". Italian Americana. 28 (2): 149–161. JSTOR 41426589.
8. The Ladies' Garment Worker. 1918. p. 25. It was understood that money collected from Italians ...
9. La Porta, Alfredo (January 1, 1918). "Among Italian and Other Ladies' Tailors". The Ladies' Garment Worker. 9 (1): 22–23. among the ladies' tailors, of whom there are about 500, almost evenly divided in number between Italians and Jews.
10. "Striking Dress and Cloak Makers". The New York Times. July 22, 1883.
11. "Clothing workers of Chicago, 1910-1922" (PDF).
12. "Amalgamated Clothing Workers (1919-1925)".
13. not to be confused with this (usage): Todd S. Purdum (February 18, 1990). "New York City Is Out of the Needle Trade". The New York Times.
14. only "half of all women working in the garment industry between 1909 and 1919 belonged to unions." Debran Rowland (2004). The Boundaries of Her Body: The Troubling History of Women's Rights.
15. Adam Dickter (1972). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Jerusalem Israel: Keter Publishing House Ltd.
16. The Diary of a Shirtwaist Striker: A Story of the Shirtwaist Makers' Strike in New York. New York. The Co-operative Press. 1910.
17. "Garment Workers prepare demands, Cloakmakers Take the Lead in Move Expected to Cause a Strike of 75,000". The New York Times. June 26, 1915.
18. "Persons to Fill Their Places Are to be Had ... Committee Appeals for Strike Funds". The New York Times. June 14, 1916.
19. "Cloakmakers' Spare Time". The New York Times. July 30, 1910.

Sources

• Miller, Sally M. (December 1978). "From Sweatshop Worker to Labor Leader: Theresa Malkiel, A Case Study". American Jewish History. 68 (2). The Johns Hopkins University Press: 189–205. JSTOR 23881894.