IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/013
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: NATIONAL SOCIETY OF OPERATIVE PRINTERS AND ASSISTANTS
Date(s): 1944-1987
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 39 production units.
Name of creator(s): National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants
National Society of Operative Printers' Assistants
Printers' Labourers' Union
Society of Graphical and Allied Trades
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The National Society was founded in 1889 as the Printers' Labourers' Union, "to protect the interests and wages of printers' labourers ... and to afford them a means of mutual support". In 1899 it was renamed the Operative Printers' Assistants Society, and in 1904 it became the National Society of Operative Printers' Assistants.
In recognition of the skilled managers as well as assistants among its membership, its title was altered again in 1912 to the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants (NatSOPA). In 1965 the union merged with the National Union of Printing, Bookbinding and Paper Workers to form the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT).
The union was organised on a branch (chapel) basis, each chapel being presided over by its "father".
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the National Society of Operative Printers and Assistants Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror day reel and machine staff chapel and federated house chapel. The records comprise minutes, attendance registers, members' subscription books, correspondence and related papers.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Arranged into two sections: Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror Reel and Machine Staff Chapel; and Daily Mirror and Sunday Mirror Federated House Chapel.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to these records rests with the depositor.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to Guildhall Library in 1988 on the closure of the chapels. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.
ALLIED MATERIALS
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: June to August 2010.