Rochester socialist scrapbook collection

During the years 1910 to 1917, the Rochester, New York local of the Socialist Party had almost nine hundred dues-paying members. The membership represented a cross-section of the laboring and educated classes in the city, and participated in the social and political life of the area. Among the organizations and activities organized and supported by Rochester socialists during this period were public speeches and debates held at the Rochester Labor Lyceum, the same and other social activities in the Young People's Socialist League, and classes and activities for children in the Rochester Socialist Sunday School. The director and guiding spirit of the two latter organizations from 1911 to 1915, was Kendrick Shedd, University of Rochester, Class of 1889, a popular member of the University's German faculty between 1891 and 1912, who was forced to resign his university position because of his political views. The activities of the Rochester socialists were centered in a three-story brick building they built at 580 St. Paul Street in Rochester, which still stood in 1986. While the Labor Lyceum continued to function there after disillusionment with socialism set in following the First World War and the Russian Revolution, both the Young People's Socialist League and the Socialist Sunday School, after each having about five hundred members during this period, lost members and were disbanded.