Michael Munk was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1934 and moved to Portland, Oregon with his parents in 1939. He attended Reed College, and after serving in the United States Army, he later received a Ph.D. from New York University. He went on to teach political science at several universities, including Stony Brook University, Roosevelt University, and Rutgers University. Upon retirement from teaching, Munk returned to Portland, where he switched his focus to Portland’s history and Oregon’s radical and working-class past. Munk published several articles on the subjects of labor and political radicalism in Oregon in the
This collection contains materials collected by Michael Munk while he was researching and writing about various aspects of Portland and Oregon history, especially issues of radical left-wing politics and labor. The collection includes notes, correspondence (letters and email printouts), posters, pamphlets, flyers, news clippings, brochures, photographs (printed out, developed, and on CD-ROMS), and cassettes. Many of the items in this collection are copies of primary sources, although there are a number of original documents, especially in the Ephemera folders. Subjects include leftist and labor union figures in Oregon history, including John Reed, Louise Bryant, Tom Burns, and Stanley Moore, a professor at Reed College dismissed for alleged Communist activity. Also included are materials relating to places outside Portland and in Washington State.
Munk has had a long history of involvement in radical politics, and materials on his personal activities are interwoven with materials on the subjects of his research. As a result, this collection, while primarily a collection of Munk's own research materials, also contains some materials relating to his own involvement in Portland and Oregon history.
Acquired 1997 and 2015 (Lib. Acc. 23341 and Lib. Acc. 28641).
The collection is arranged into nine series:
Series A: John Reed and Louise Bryant
Series B: Carl Walters and Helen Lawrence Walters
Series C: Art and culture
Series D: Women and women's activism
Series E: Various cultural groups
Series F: Labor history
Series G: Radical political history
Series H: Stanley Moore
Series I: General research materials
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.
Michael Munk collection, Coll 516, Oregon Historical Society Research Library
Cassette tapes were separated to the Oregon Historical Society Research Library's oral history collections.
Materials relating to both John Reed and Louise Reed, especially concerning their relationship.
Materials relating to the article “The True Romance of John Reed and Louise Bryant,” published in Oregon Historical Quarterly in 2008. Includes primary and secondary source research documents as well as various drafts of the article and correspondence regarding the writing and publication of the article.
Includes materials relating to the organization of the John Reed/Louise Bryant Multi-Media Festival, which took place October 17-22, 1997.
Photographs of the official dedication of the John Reed Bench in Washington Park in 2007.
Negatives of the photographs of the official dedication of the John Reed Bench in Washington Park in 2007.
Includes a copy of finding aid, application to access Yale Archive, press release about the collection and article about the collection in the Yale Alumni magazine.
Copy of play written by John Reed.
Letters from Louise to Reed as well as letters concerning Reed written by Louise Bryant
Correspondence between Louise Bryant and Clara Wold.
Correspondence between Louise Bryant and Eugene O'Neill
Correspondence between Louise Bryant and Sara Field
Includes copies of portions of Helen’s diary as well as materials relating to the writing, editing and publishing of the article “The Diaries of Helen Lawrence Walters.” Also contains four compact discs entitled:
H. Walters Photos
Helen Walters Diary Disc 1
Helen Walters Diary Disc 2
Helen Walters Diary #3
Materials relating to the writing, editing and, publishing of “The Portland Period of Artist Carl Walters” published in Oregon Historical Quarterly in 2000.
Correspondence regarding Carl and Helen Walters and their Portland connections.
General research materials regarding art and culture in Oregon.
Materials relating to art colonies and communities in and around Woodstock, New York. Also includes materials relating to Carl and Helen Walters, who lived in the area for some time.
Includes research materials regarding Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger in regards to their connections to Oregon and Portland.
Materials relating to photographer Dorothea Lange's Oregon photographs taken during the Great Depression. Includes copies of Lange's photographs.
Includes news clippings, copies of Richey's short stories, correspondence and secondary sources regarding Tina Modotti and Robo Richey.
News clipping and articles printed from the Internet about Ruth Barnett, a Portland abortionist.
Includes materials about the "Burnside Triangle Walking Tour" and an article about the Edward McAllister Case.
Includes a series of photographs of a Romani living in Portland, contemporary news clippings and a 2001 newspaper article.
News clippings relating to the history of Chinese Americans in Oregon.
News clippings relating to the history of Japanese Americans and internment in Oregon.
Contains three large sized booklets: Portland Bureau of Planning, “The History of Portland’s African American Community (1805 to the Present),” 1993; Metropolitan Human Rights Commission, “Ethnic and Gender Discrimination in Portland 1844-1980”; PCC Community History Center – The Jackson Forum Symposium, “The Vanport Flood and its impact on the African American Community in Portland,” 1998.
Contains: Bosco-Milligan Foundation "Buildings of Portland’s African American History Revised & Expanded"
Copies of materials from time period, including flyers, correspondence and other documents by different groups advocating on the behalf of Theodore Jordan, an African American who was charged with murder and faced a death sentence.
Materials regarding the Portland Negro League Baseball team, The Roses, and other topics related to African American history and baseball, including the Portland Giants and the Portland Beavers.
Materials relating to John Reed Club and politically radical Portland artists.
Includes news clippings written about Fitzgerald and news articles written by Fitzgerald; “Self-Serve Fairy Tales” Vote No on 4 (anti self-serve gasoline pamphlet); name tag and ribbon from The National Grange 199th Convention in Eugene Oregon, 1985; Phil Frost for Legislature business card; memorial service program; and “Questionnaire to Be Completed by 100 Witnesses Who Relied on the Fifth Amendment before Congressional Committees in 1953 and 1954.”
Matt Meehan was a longshoreman and labor activist, involved in the IWW and the 1934 Waterfront Strike in Portland. Interview includes description of a debate between himself and Harry Bridges
Contains a pamphlet of “speeches by Elmer Smith, Captain Edward P. Coll Centralia, Wash., March 31 1929 on the Centralia Case” and a PSU masters history thesis titled “Labor Violence: The Centralia Case, the IWW and its Enemies."
Includes letters form National Guard spies embedded in labor organizations to superiors concerning the labor movement and the 1934 waterfront strike in Portland. Also includes newspaper articles about the Oregon National Guard’s spy activities.
A collection of primary source documents related to the All Union Caucus, including letters, flyers, meeting notes and newsletters.
A collection of primary source documents relating to the Oregon Unemployed Organization, including letters, flyers, meeting notes and newsletters.
Includes notes, correspondence and some research materials relating to the article “silk Stocking Mob,” which is about the Citizen’s Emergency League during the 1934 waterfront strike.
General materials relating to the 1934 waterfront strike.
General materials relating to the 1934 waterfront strike.
Materials relating to Dirk Dejong's arrest during 1934 Waterfront Strike and prosecution for criminal syndicalism. Includes an original copy of a pamphlet, originally from Kenneth Fitzgerald's papers, that promotes a meeting regarding the Dirk Dejong case posted by the Alberta Committee against Criminal Syndicalism.
Includes original copies of sources from this time period, including booklets, programs, pamphlets and flyers. Of special interest are several original IWW flyers and leaflets, copies of labor/radical politics flyers, and several original booklets and pamphlets including:
1. “Reds in the Anti-Defamation League” by Myron C. Fagan, published by Cinema Educational Guild in 1957.
2. “The Vigilantes Hide behind the Flag” by Isobel Walker Soule, published by International Labor Defense in 1937.
3. “Communist Youth Programs: Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Eighty-Ninth Congress Fifth Session,” published May 18, 1965 by Committee on the Judiciary, US Government.
4. The IWW in the Lumber Industry” by James Rowan, published by Lumber Workers Union No. 500
5. “Factory Work as It Is and Might Be,” by William Morri, 1922.
6. “Where is the CIO Going?: A Program for Militant Trade Unionism” by George Morris, published by New Century Publishing in 1949.
7. "History of the American Federation of Labor and Commercial Guide to Friends of All Trade Unions,” published by Commercial Advertising Co., 1910.
Includes labor and radical political materials such as flyers, newsletters, walking tour maps, posters for events and labor newspapers from 1989 to 2013. See oversized folder for further materials.
Includes posters, flyers and art pieces.
General labor history materials that do not related to other subject folders.
Materials relating to a Munk op-ed published in the Oregonian newspaper, including copies of the article and the editorial it was responding to, as well as letters written to Michael Munk from people responding to the article.
Includes newspaper articles and journal article written about the Portland/Sellwood-based anarchist newspaper.
Materials relating to antifascist groups and actions in Oregon during the 1930s.
Includes copies of news clippings and flyers regarding the 1932 Bonus March, as well as recent articles written about the event and its Portland connections.
Materials relating to the far-left liberal organization.
Primarily contains materials from anti-communist newspapers and other sources attacking the ACLU and arguing that it is a communist organization.
Materials in this folder primarily relate to the Abraham Lincoln Brigade and American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, particularly those who have Oregon connections. Also, see the materials separated to oral history collections, which includes an oral history of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran Thomas Allen Norton.
Contains materials concerning American volunteers in the Spanish Civil War, including correspondence with veterans and veterans' families as well as part of the transcript of an interview with Abraham Lincoln Brigade veteran Thomas Allen Norton. The actual oral history of this interview has been separated to the Oral History Department
Folder contains materials relating to the correspondence between Michael Munk and Nathan Gillespie regarding the Vanport flood and the connection of certain members of later relief organizations to radical politics. Includes correspondence and research material relating to the Citizens Flood Disaster Committee.
Contains materials relating to Harry Wicks, who was involved in the organization of the first American soviet and was a founding member of the American Communist Party. Wicks also ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives as a member of the Socialist Party of Oregon.
Includes newspaper articles, photographs and journal articles about Tom Burns and his watch store/worker's lending library.
Contains newspaper articles about Regina Fisher, the mother of Bobby Fisher, who joined the Communist Party in 1945 while living in Portland.
Research materials relating to official Communist political parties in Oregon. Does not focus on repression of Communists. Those materials are primarily located in other folders.
Research materials that focus on communism in Portland but not necessarily official party or party activities.
Research materials that focus on communism in Portland but not necessarily official party or party activities.
Contains materials regarding the Portland Police Department's "Red Squad" and the police department's later "Central Intelligence Unit," both of which conducted surveillance on local radical political organizations. The folder also contains materials relating to the protests against the CIU in which Munk played a central role. The reason for overlap of groups in organization is that Munk saw the groups as related or rather the CIU as a continuation of the Red Squad and uses information about the red squad in his protests against the CIU.
Contains documents such as news clippings and correspondence regarding the Criminal Intelligence Unit and its later iteration, the Criminal Intelligence Division. The folder also contains materials relating to the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Contains documents such as news clippings and correspondence regarding the Criminal Intelligence Unit and its later iteration, the Criminal Intelligence Division. The folder also contains materials relating to the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Materials in this folder focus on the organization's involvement in the protest against the Criminal Intelligence Division
FBI case file for Inez Lopez De Molinali of Portland, Oregon, in relation to the Velvalee Dickinson espionage case during World War II.
Contains materials relating to the "Portland Four," four Portlanders who were convicted of contempt of Congress during McCarthy Era HUAC hearings.
Contains materials relating to the dismissal of University of Washington due to supposed Communist connections during the McCarthy era.
The materials in this series were donated by Michael Munk separately and at an earlier date than the rest of the collection. The materials were previously in the possession of: Stanley Moore, Arthur F. Scott, Frank Munk, Robert Richter, and Michael Munk. These materials relate to Stanley Moore, a professor at Reed College who was fired due to his supposed connections to Communism and refusal to testify during a HUAC hearing. The series also contains materials relating to the work by Reed alumni and students to get Reed College to exonerate and apologize to Moore, as well as offer to reinstate Moore to his former position. Michael Munk played a central role in the movement to vindicate Stanley Moore.
Contains a detailed inventory of the Stanley Moore series. The inventory lists the individual materials that are contained in each folder.
The correspondence folder dated 1952-1958 contains correspondence between the major figures in the Stanley Moore case, including Moore himself. All other correspondence folders contain correspondence between activists involved in the movement to get Reed College to exonerate and apologize to Stanley Moore.
Includes official documents regarding Thomas Moore from Reed College, House Un-American activities hearing transcripts in which various people name Thomas Moore as a communist, and other official documents and reports.
Collection of documents, newspaper articles, notes, booklets, and correspondence regarding Stanley Moore and general policies toward Communists in American workplaces, collected by Arthur F. Scott, who was a Reed College professor and member of the Faculty Council during the early 1950s when Moore's case was decided.
Contains the official transcript and record of Stanley Moore's hearing before the Reed College's Board of Trustees.
Contains correspondence, reports and news clippings relating to the American Association of University Professors' response to the Stanley Moore case and issues of academic freedom in general.
Contains correspondence, reports and news clippings relating to the American Association of University Professors' response to the Stanley Moore case and issues of academic freedom in general.
Includes the transcript of Stanley Moore's hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee
Materials collected by Dr. Frank Munk, father of Michael Munk and professor of political science at Reed College, regarding the Stanley Moore case and, more generally, communists staff members at American universities.
These are materials relating to a wide variety of topics, often seemingly unrelated to the collection. Unlike the following chronological folders, these materials were not organized into these files by Michael Munk but are rather items that were unfiled and did not relate to any of the other file subjects.
Each folder contains material regarding a particular time period.
Contains news clippings and guides to historical sites and monuments. These materials relate to the development of Portland outside of the collection's general radical and labor focus.
Contains general news clippings that do not relate to other subject folders.
Contains correspondence that do not relate to other subject folders.
Contains photographs that do not relate to other subject folders.
Contains negatives that do not relate to other subject folders.
Contains photographs of labor and radical historical sites in Oregon.
Contains some of the negatives of the photographs of labor and radical historical sites in Oregon.
Includes academic papers not written by Michael Munk.
Includes brochures, pamphlets, booklets, flyers and postcards, all relating to various archival collections, museum exhibits, monuments/memorials and historical preservation events. Most of these materials are promotional materials relating to specific exhibits or collections.
Materials relating to the memorials of various individuals, including newspaper obituaries and memorial service programs.