Labor | Page 36 | MNopedia

Black and white photograph of Fayal underground mine, Eveleth, 1915.

Tower-Soudan mine

Miners in the pit of the Tower-Soudan mine, 1890.

Immigration to the Iron Range, 1880–1930

During the early twentieth century, the population of the Iron Range was among the most ethnically diverse in Minnesota. Tens of thousands of immigrants arrived from Finland, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Canada, England, and over thirty other places of origin. These immigrants mined the ore that made the Iron Range famous and built its communities.

Fisher’s Barber Shop

The exterior of Fisher’s Barber Shop splashed with red paint, c.1940s. During this period, shops perceived as communist—especially those allied with the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)—were vandalized with red paint.

Black and white photograph of Governor Elmer Benson signing a barbers’ fair trade bill. Photograph by the St. Paul Daily News, 1937.

Elmer Benson signs barbers’ fair trade bill

Governor Elmer Benson signs a barbers’ fair trade bill. Photograph by the St. Paul Daily News, 1937.

Cover of the "Journeyman Barber"

Cover of the March 18 1918 edition (vol. XIV, no. 2) of the Journeyman Barber, the national newsletter of the Journeymen Barbers International Union (JBIU).

Prince Honeycutt in his Fergus Falls shop

African American barber Prince Honeycutt in his Fergus Falls shop, c.1900.

Journeymen Barbers in Minnesota

Journeymen barbers were skilled craftsmen whose labor organizations helped shape the barbers’ trade in Minnesota. Politically active from their first arrival, they allied themselves with third-party movements after World War I. Shopping mall barbershops, consumer choices, and lost union membership led to organizational decline in the 1970s.