Printing and Kindred Trades Federation

The bulk of the Printing and Kindred Trades Federation archive was collected from the PKTF offices at 10, Doughty Street, London, WC1 by Janet Druker on the 6th and 9th May 1974, shortly after the PKTF's dissolution.

The only overall guide to the main 1974 deposit is to be found in the Guide to the Modern Records Centre (Coventry : University of Warwick Library, 1977). A summary version of this is given in the scope and content section below. The shelf arrangement of the minutes, financial records and printed series enables these to be consulted without undue difficulty. An interim check list of files is available for the material deposited in 1979. See also the records of the London branch of the PKTF (MSS.28/6/1-3). An authority file exists for this corporate body (GB 0152 AAR148).

Accruals : 30th August 1979: Four parcels of files delivered to the Centre by mail from J.A. Selby of Natsopa, who had administered the files since the PKTF's dissolution in 1974.

A further deposit formed part of the collection from the Midlands branch of Amicus (Nottingham office). This collection has been given the accession number 555.

The federation was founded in 1890-2 but the original body became a provincial organisation when the London unions withdrew to form their own federation. In 1901 the PKTF was formed on a national basis, to represent the interests of all printing workers on questions of national or widespread application. After mergers in the 1960s and 70s between unions in the printing industry its original purpose became redundant and it was dissolved in April 1974.

Reference: Sixty years of service : Printing and Kindred Trades Federation (London, 1961).

This collection is available to researchers by appointment at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick. See http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/library/mrc/using/

Link to full catalogue: http://mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk/records/PKT

See also: British Printing Industries Federation; papers of Bob Willis, General Secretary of the London Society of Compositors / London Typographical Society (1945-63)