Eight line graphs that display the hourly earnings of Donnelly Garment Company employees in relation to other national garment companies in early 1937. These companies include the Apex Dress Co., Action Dress Inc., Philip Zahn & Co., Samax Dress Co., Max Wiesen, Inc., Famous Dress Co., Haas and Bernstein, and Rudy Dress Co..
Reed, Nell Donnelly
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A letter from Fred L. Smith of C. J. Gayfer & Company, Inc., Mobile, Alabama to the "Gentlemen" at Donnelly Garment Company (DGC).
Photograph of the sewing department at The Donnelly Garment Company in the Corrigan Building at 1828 Walnut, Kansas City, Missouri.
Photograph of the sewing department at The Donnelly Garment Company in the Corrigan Building at 1828 Walnut, Kansas City, Missouri.
Photograph of a Christmas party given by the employees of the Donnelly Garment Company in honor of David Donnelly at the Kansas City Community Church on December 23rd, 1932.
Photograph of a police officers restraining protesters at a demonstration on March 17, 1937 by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. This image was captured outside of the Gordon Brothers Garment Company, Gernes Garment Company, and Missouri Garment Company building at 2617 Grand Avenue (now Grand Boulevard), Kansas City, Missouri.
Production statistics for the Donnelly Garment Company for the calender years 1936 through 1938. During these three years, the company produced 5,178,474 articles of clothing worth a total of $16,375,096.67.
An excerpt of the examination of Elizabeth Gates Reeves by Senator James A. Reed. Reeves, an employee of the Donnelly Garment Company, is shown a series of 27 photographs by Reed and is asked to describe details about the pictures.
Nell Donnelly and her chauffeur, George Blair, were kidnapped on December 16, 1931. Donnelly had become famous after her 1916 founding of the Donnelly Garment Company, which sold stylish but affordable dresses for daily wear by ordinary women. Backed by the sales of “Nelly Don’s,” as the dresses became known, the company grew into a multi-million dollar business with over 1,000 employees in the 1920s.
Johnny Lazia (born Lazzio) gained prominence in Kansas City’s politics during the 1920s and ‘30s due to his leadership of the North Side Democratic Club, engagement in local organized crime, and involvement with Tom Pendergast’s political machine. Pendergast dominated Kansas City politics not by holding elected offices, but through his machine of alliances and affiliates.
The history of the Donnelly Garment Company and its battle with the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) is one that defies conventional understandings of American life in the Great Depression. It is a story of a female entrepreneur succeeding in an era of economic paralysis, and one of a union failing to organize a factory in a period when workers won substantive rights. ILGWU president David Dubinsky, Nell Donnelly Reed, and Senator James A. Reed were the principal figures in a contest to organize a single garment factory, a legal battle that came to represent much larger questions.