The first installment of an online archive of the Minneapolis Labor Review now is available to the public by visiting www.minneapolisunions.org

This searchable archive includes all issues of the Labor Review published from April 1907 through December 1946. Visitors can search the archive by an individual?s name, a topic, or a date.

Visitors to the archive will be viewing the pages of the Labor Review as they actually appeared in print. Readers will be able to view an entire page or zoom in for a close-up. Pages may be printed from the viewer?s computer. In addition, high-quality reprints may be ordered for a fee.

Earlier this year, 45 labor and community volunteers spent five weeks using a high-quality digital camera to shoot all back issues of the Labor Review from 1907 up to the present. Thanks to optical character recognition technology, these back issues of the newspaper now are searchable PDF files.

For nearly 100 years, the Minneapolis Labor Review has chronicled the history of the labor movement in the Twin Cities and working families' continuing struggle for economic and social justice.

"The Labor Review Archive is our gift to the community to promote the study of labor history and to help keep that history alive," said Bill McCarthy, president of the Minneapolis Central Labor Union Council. "We thank the many unions and individuals who have donated to the Labor Review Archive Project to date."

Fundraising for the Labor Review Archive Project is about three-quarters complete for the on-line launch of the entire archive. Donations thus far total about $12,000. Another $4,000 will be needed to post the years 1947 to the present.

For more information on how to support the project, call 612-379-4725. Donor gifts will be provided in recognition of support.

To view a list of Labor Review Archive Project volunteers and donors, visit www.minneapolisunions.org