Browse Items (10 total)

SMH 1901 Mon 7 May Eight Hour Day[1].pdf
The writer credits the craft guilds of medieval England for the eight-hour system, including the Saturday half-holiday. The latter was supposed to be devoted to archery practice, which eventually ensured English mastery of the bow and arrow and their…

Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW) 1898 Wed. 5 Oct Eight Hours Day Song.jpg
Working or labour songs were a feature of nineteenth century (and later) union gatherings and processions. The songs and communal singing evoke peasant or folk traditions. The song gives the workers the high-ground because they resort to moral rather…

1901 Federation Procession.pdf
This article written by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 2010 displays a collection of primary source materials pertaining to the Australian Federation Parade in Sydney in 1901. Of particular interest are the groups of people present…

This illustration is an early reference to the beginnings of the eight-hour movement. One of the first marches took place in Melbourne in 1856, when the Stonemasons working on the build of the University of Melbourne, marched to Parliament protesting…

Geelong Trades Hall Building.jpg
‘Labor Omnia Vincit’ (work conquers everything) is a historically significant slogan associated with the American and English labour movements. It was also the motto of the Knights of Labour, a group started in the 1860s in America. The…

This illustration portrays the great fear of the establishment in the late nineteenth century in Australia, an organised workforce. Union organisation and affiliation and the strengthening of fraternities and friendly societies appeared to create a…

A photograph from c. 1911 of a large crowd lining Argent Street in Broken Hill to watch a Labor Day procession of men carrying union banners. Union banners have a medieval predecessor in the banners used by guilds (an association of craftsmen in the…

Procession halted in front of the Toowoomba Hall. Labor Day parade celebrates the eight hour working day. Processions with banners were a feature of the later medieval period. The metalworkers' banner has a medieval predecessor in the banners used by…
Output Formats

atom, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2