MIA: History: USA: Publications: Labor Defender: Note on the use of color ink in the covers of Labor Defender
Labor Defender
Regarding the use of color ink in the covers of Labor Defender
From the first issue in January of 1926 thru the September 1930 issue, only black and white ink was used on the covers of Labor Defender. We assert this based on our experience with about half of the original issues of Labor Defender in the 1926-1928 period, supported by the observations of Paul Thomas of Stanford University's Hoover Library, who looked thru their holdings of original issues.
Near all of the covers of Labor Defender in the period of 1934 - 1937 used color ink, and as I had access to original issues for all of those issues, I've provided scans of those color color covers (marred slightly by the fact they were in bound volumes I was not at liberty to disassemble, though benefiting from the volume being pressed flat against a flat bed scanner's glass).
In an outstandingly kind and generous response to a query I sent by email, Paul checked the Hoover Library's collection of original issues of Labor Defender for 1930 – 1933, and told us where he saw color used in the covers. Then Paul ALSO scanned the covers in that period that employed color ink, and emailed the scans to us. We have composed our thumbnails for those issues from Paul's scans, and added them to our scans of the Greenwood Reprints of these issues in that 1930-1933 period.
Though the scans Paul made are slightly marred due to the constraints he was under (unable to unbind the bound issues, and required by library procedure to use an overhead scanner without flattening the pages) these scans do an excellent job of letting all know what these covers of Labor Defender actually looked like, augmenting the black and white images provided by Greenwood Reprints. We are VERY much in his debt for this kind contribution to this digital archive.
Summary of use of Color on the covers of Labor Defender:
- 1926 - September 1930 ALL black and white covers.
- 1930 October and November color covers
- 1931 NO color covers. All in black and white.
- 1932 We were given color scans for May, June, July, August, September, October
- 1933 Jan Feb Mar May Jun Jul Aug Oct Dec (April and November issues reported missing)
- 1934 Feb, Mar, Jun, and Sep color, all others B&W
- 1935 Jan and Oct covers are black and white. All others are color.
- 1936, 1937 all covers use color... some two or three colors.
Areas where we're not sure about use of color:
- November 1933 was missing from Stanford's collection April 1933 in Stanford's collection did not have its cover. An undated black and white issue was reported to exist between Oct 1932 and Jan 1933.