The records of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) span the years 1883-1925 and consist of letterpress volumes of correspondence of Samuel Gompers (1850-1924) and William Green (1870-1952), presidents of the organization, and by other officials including James Duncan, Gabriel Edmonston, Frank Keyes Foster, and John McBride. Comprising approximately 172,300 items (328,445 images) digitized from previously produced microfilm, the collection relates to the formation of local unions, meetings, charters, bylaws, ethics, publicity, arbitration, AFL's political principles, communism, socialism, anthracite coal strikes of 1897 and 1902, fund-raising, boycotts, and the United Mine Workers, American Railway Union, International Association of Machinists, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and American Federationist, the AFL's magazine.

The collection is arranged, filed, and numbered as received. Volumes 251, 310, and 313 were not received by the Library.  Each volume contains an index of correspondents.  Prominent names include Susan B. Anthony, Grover Cleveland, William Hugh Johnston, John L. Lewis, L. J. McGruder, P. J. McGuire, John Mitchell, John Morrison, Herman Robinson, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), Daniel Joseph Tobin, Henry White, and Woodrow Wilson.

A finding aid (PDF and HTML) to the American Federation of Labor records is available online.