Commemorative Knights of Labor Coin from 1883
This video is part of a series made in collaboration with the Workers Arts and Heritage Center as part of the All for 9 and Nine for All project.
Transcript
This is a commemorative iron medal or medallion from the permanent collection at the Workers Arts & Heritage Center. It was made by the Joseph Hall Iron Works in Oshawa, Ontario. And if we turn it over, we can see it also has the Knights of Labor. It is a commemorative coin from a Knights of Labor demonstration on August 13th, 1883. The Knights of Labor were a popular organization across different cities in Ontario and going as far as Montreal. They were very influential here in the decades after the 1880s and the Nine Hours League and Nine Hours Movement in Hamilton. They were active in organizing men and women, unskilled laborers and were really trying to create a cooperative labor movement across regional centers in Canada.