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KARL BAARSLAG PAPERS, 1927-1964 BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE Karl Baarslag was born November 25, 1900. He left high school after his sophomore year and worked as a messenger, clerk, and laborer. While a postal clerk in Brooklyn in the early 1920s Baarslag organized local 251 of the National Federation of Post Office Clerks. From 1925 to 1941 Baarslag worked as a radio officer and noticed that unions representing these workers included communist sympathizers. He became an anti-communist activist involved with private and Congressional investigations during the 1950s and early 1960s. Baarslag died in 1984. SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE The papers primarily document the American Radio Telegraphists Association (ARTA) and the National Maritime Union (NMU). The ARTA files primarily contain minutes from 1934 to 1939, but include reports and publications. The NMU materials contain minutes, correspondence, administrative files, and a 13 page history written in 1943 detailing communist involvement in the NMU. There are folders on AWARE, a political screening organization working with the entertainment industry. Other materials include American Communist Party minutes and printed materials from leftist groups in the early 1960s. The papers are arranged alphabetically by subject. FOLDER LIST Box Contents 1 American Radio Telegraphists Association, 1934-July 1938 (10 folders) American Radio Telegraphists Association, 1938-1949 and undated (1940-1949 includes American Communication Association, 6 folders) American Radio Telegraphists Association – Official Organ, 1939 3 Anti-Communism Committee to Investigate Tax Exempt Foundations, 1954 4 AWARE, Incorporated, 1953-1956 (2 folders) 5 National Lawyers Guild Quarterly, 1938-1939 The Assignment System by Wayne P. Paschal, undated 6 Minutes, June 1938-Mar 1940 (7 folders) 7 Minutes, Apr 1940-1941, 1943 (5 folders) National Guardian, 1962, 1964
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