GALLERY LXXI
The Great Upheaval
In 1886 the Knights of Labor had somewhere near 700,000 members and a vision of one big union open to almost everyone. Within five years it was gone — and what replaced it was narrower on purpose.
ON THE FLOOR
Charles Horton Cooley
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“You learned who you are by watching what other people reflected back at you. The mirror, it turns out, was people all along.”
ON THE FLOOR
Edward Soja
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“Space is not the stage the story happens on - it is one of the actors. Ask WHERE, and half the mystery answers itself.”
ON THE FLOOR
George Herbert Mead
Theorist designate - flagged from the theory registry (#8494)
“The self is a conversation: the I speaking, the Me listening with everyone else's ears. You rehearse society every time you think.”
AM4-091 · The Great Upheaval — Open the drawer
A printed membership card from the Knights of Labor, circa 1880s, granting access to local assemblies and bearing the organization's iconic symbol—the clasped hands—representing the union's inclusive vision before rapid fragmentation.
AM4-092 · The Great Upheaval — What is this thing?
A standardized one-page employment agreement requiring workers to pledge non-membership in labor unions as a condition of hire, widely used by American manufacturers and railroads from the 1880s onward to suppress collective organizing.
AM4-093 · The Great Upheaval — Read the source
A confidential letter from Knights of Labor leader Terence Powderly instructing local assemblies to avoid strikes, circulated weeks before the Haymarket bombing and revealing the organization's internal fracture over direct action versus political reform.
AM4-094 · The Great Upheaval — Map it / time it
A representative wall map showing Knights of Labor assembly locations across the United States at peak membership in 1886, used to track geographic distribution before and after the Haymarket explosion.
AM4-095 · The Great Upheaval — Two sources disagree
A printed employment agreement requiring workers to renounce union membership as a condition of hire. Widespread after 1886, these contracts became a primary tool employers used to break union organizing, replacing earlier informal hiring practices.
AM4-096 · The Great Upheaval — State the claim
A printed membership card from the Knights of Labor, circa 1885–1886, admitting the bearer to local assemblies regardless of trade, race, or gender—the organizational passport of the union that claimed 700,000 members before its rapid collapse.
AM4-097 · The Great Upheaval — Take the other side
The official governing document of the Knights of Labor, establishing membership criteria, strike protocols, and reform objectives that created structural contradictions between national leadership and local assemblies during the organization's peak years.
AM4-098 · The Great Upheaval — Weigh it
A laminated membership credential issued by the Knights of Labor during its peak year, bearing the order's ritual symbols and member number. It represents the organization's rapid enrollment surge and the heterogeneous base that made unified action difficult.
AM4-099 · The Great Upheaval — Build the answer
Enameled pin worn by members of the Knights of Labor, circa 1880s. The badge bore the order's emblem and served as visible proof of membership in the largest labor organization of its era before its rapid decline after 1886.
AM4-100 · The Great Upheaval — For the file
An ornate initiation document issued to new Knights members, featuring fraternal imagery and pledges of solidarity. Certificates like these were distributed by the thousands during the 1880s boom and represent the organization's appeal across trades and regions.
AM4-101 · The Great Upheaval — Go and look
A printed membership card from the Knights of Labor, circa 1885–1886, bearing the order's oath and ritual symbols. It granted access to local assemblies and marked the holder as part of a movement that briefly unified skilled and unskilled workers across trades and regions.
AM4-102 · The Great Upheaval — Now, today
A printed employment agreement typical of industrial-era factories and mills, with blank spaces for worker name and wage, representing the individual bargain that replaced collective membership and the structural pressure that dissolved mass unionism.
AM4-103 · The Great Upheaval — Teach it back
A ritual initiation card issued to Knights of Labor members in the 1880s, bearing oaths of secrecy and solidarity. Membership cards document the order's explosive growth and reveal the tension between its inclusive vision and the practical limits of unified action across trades and regions.
AM4-104 · The Great Upheaval — The other place
A complete set of ceremonial sash, jeweled collar, and ritual manual from a Knights of Labor local assembly, circa 1885–1887, representing the fraternal structure that unified geographically dispersed members across regional and trade boundaries.
AM4-105 · The Great Upheaval — One object, close
A handwritten or printed pledge card used by Knights of Labor members to swear secrecy and solidarity, circa 1880s. Candidates signed these upon initiation, binding themselves to the order's principles and mutual aid obligations.
From the gallery’s own wall — “AM4-091 · The Great Upheaval — Open the drawer”.
🎧 A moment to consider
What will you carry out of this room?