Click Reo Ramblers - Large image to view an enlarged version of the image.

The Reo Ramblers at the 1937 sit-down strike, March 10-mid April 1937.

Lansing Auto Worker declared during the event, "Reo Strike Is Nation's Model Demonstration." Under the stress of wage reductions and layoffs resulting from the nation's Depression, Reo workers shut down the factory and occupied it for a month. Workers remained peaceful, engaging in activities such as checkers, volleyball, and singing with the Reo Ramblers. The strike was successful and reenergized the local UAW chapter.

This month's photo comes from the R.C. Leavenworth photographic collection. See below to read about a special Leavenworth exhibit at the Michigan Historical Center!

To see more Leavenworth images on the web, click on the following descriptions:

1934 Oldsmobile Promotional Photo

Jazz Music in Lansing During the 1920s

Announcement of Special Exhibit

From horse-and-carriage to the automobile, take a trip through Lansing history with R. C. Leavenworth. Leavenworth started out photographing lumbering and mining camps in northern Michigan, using a horse-drawn darkroom. He relocated to Lansing in 1919 to document Lansing's transformation into a major industrial city and automotive capital. For over a century, Leavenworth Photography has shot hundreds of thousands of images that tell the story of industry, business and social life in Michigan's capital city. With subjects as diverse as street scenes, car parts, workers' strikes, vaudeville troupes and football games, Leavenworth lived up to the slogan plastered on the door of his company car : "Anything photographed, anywhere, anytime."

"The Picture Man" runs May 30 to September 30 in the temporary exhibit area on the first floor of the Michigan Historical Center. Admission is free.

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Click Archives of Michigan to visit the Archives of Michigan home page.

Click Image of the Month Archives to access former Image of the Month pages.

Updated 07/03/2008

Michigan Historical Center, Department of History, Arts and Libraries
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