Artwork, Ephemera
President Ulysses S. Grant issued the National Eight Hour Law Proclamation in 1869. He declared that employers could not cut down their employees' wages because of a reduction in the number of hours in a work day. The struggle for the eight-hour day is one of the most prominent labor fights in America's history. It took generations before it became law under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
This image is a scan of a National Eight Hour Law Proclamation, which was originally issued by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1869. The art on the proclamation is heavily symbolic and the words on the star in the center express Grant’s decision to outlaw the reduction of wages based on a reduction in work hours. Essentially, employers could not pay their employees less if they were now working eight hour days instead of ten. Click here to see a transcript of Grant’s original proclamation from May 19, 1869.
