United Garment Workers of America Notebook

With the invention of celluloid in 1870, many merchants now had a cheap, durable, and moldable plastic with which to produce complimentary advertising items. This notebook has a celluloid cover that bears an image of a man in a brown suit and hat standing before a trolley line. The man is holding his coat open to show the label for the United Garment Workers of America (UGWA). The reverse side has a warning not to accept clothing in which the label has been sewn in by the dealer, and lists four goals of the UGWA—fair pay, shorter hours, sanitary shops, and reliable clothing. The notebook contains a diary written in ink with pages indicating members of the UGWA, a calendar for 1907, and miscellaneous information such as interest tables. The notebook is meant to encourage consumers to “insist on clothing bearing the UGWA label” and not to “buy inferior, unclean, sweatshop clothing.”