Mad Hatters: Labor, Rights, and the Role of the Courts in the Danbury Hatters Case

This poster addresses the effect of early-20th century labor law on life in a single-industry city: Danbury CT. Using local archives, the built environment, and material culture, we examine the local context for and impact of the 1908 Supreme Court case Loewe v. Lawlor, better known as the “Danbury Hatters Case,” which severely curtailed the power of labor unions by finding secondary boycotts unconstitutional. The poster presents initial findings from a larger history of hatting labor union activity and the court system in the early 20th century. The project looks at the history of the Danbury Hatters Case from both grassroots and institutional vantage points. Helmed by a historian (Lindenauer) and a political scientist (Williams), this interdisciplinary endeavor seeks to capture the interplay between institutional/ideological change and on-the-ground labor identity and activity. Integrating the historical records of union activism, litigation, and the everyday in early twentieth-century Danbury, we demonstrate the material impact of legal challenges to labor rights on the early-20th century American city.

The poster is comprised of four sections, each drawing on the rich visual evidence available in local archives. First, we will introduce the project illustrating the power of collective memory in shaping the contemporary presentation of local history in “Hat City.” The next section will highlight evidence from local archives, including documents and photographs related to the hatting industry, Danbury’s industrial geography, and built environment that shaped the lives of laborers. By the second half of the 19^th c., hatting in Danbury employed more labor than all other occupations combined. This industry dominance shaped all aspects of local life, from the arrangement of municipal resources to the prevalence of the “Danbury shakes,” a side effect of the mercury used in hat manufacturing. The third section will examine legal writings and case law from the time period, to demonstrate the immediate and long-term impact of the Loewe case on labor locally and nationally. Finally, we will draw connections between the past and the present with regard to collective identity and labor activism. As part of a larger public history project, we intend to incorporate tactile elements in the poster and provide audio evidence on a laptop, including archival interviews with hatters, management, and lawyers reflecting on the case. These elements are key to understanding the roots of collective identity forged through economic activity.

With recent cases like Citizens United and Janus v. AFSCME, the U.S. Supreme Court has embraced corporate political power at the expense of unionized labor. At the same time, key sectors of the economy including media and education are seeing a rise in unionization. This critical juncture in the US economy necessitates a reevaluation of a previous era in American history when the Supreme Court supported industry over the demands of labor and found numerous labor union activities unconstitutional. Using a local labor dispute and its place in a significant SCOTUS decision as a lens, this poster provides important analytical insights into the role of the U.S. court system in adjudicating labor disputes.