John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers of America, was one of the United States' most long- standing and influential labor leaders campaigning tirelessly for miners' rights and effective industrial safety legislation and playing a major role in founding the Congress of Industrial Organizations which brought together unskilled and semi-skilled workers in the mass production industries for the first time.

The Papers of John L. Lewis - correspondence, biographical material, speeches, union records, personal documents, clippings and photographs - represent a significant research resource for labor historians throwing light both on the public and private face of a prominent union leader.