Two rare handbills that helped set off the riot that inspired International Worker’s Day (May Day).
(Haymarket Square Riot) Two broadsides, 10 1/8 x 6 7/8 in. ea. calling for a mass meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago to protest the killing of strikers during the general strike that commenced on 1 May 1886. The first copy features a controversial call for workers to arm themselves which was removed in the second after objections by labor leaders.
An extraordinary pair of printed handbills, being the first and second states of the notice of the mass meeting that devolved into the Haymarket Riot after a bomb was thrown into the crowd resulting in the deaths of over ten police and civilians and scores of wounded. The riot is considered to be the origin of May Day as an international labor observance.
Both are headed “Attention Workingmen! GREAT MASS-MEETING TO-NIGHT, at 7:30 o’cock, AT THE HAYMARKET…” and on the bottom half in German: “Achtung, Arbeiter! Große Massen=Versammlung heute Abend, 1/2 8 Uhr, auf dem Heumarkt…” and have nearly identical text with one key difference. The first edition includes an additional instruction: “Workingmen Arm Yourselves and Appear in Full Force!” (“Arbeiter, bewaffnet Euch und erscheint waffenhaft!“). When strike leader August Spies, one of the featured speakers for the 4 May rally, saw the call to arms, he refused to speak unless the incendiary language was removed. Organizers destroyed as many copies of the broadside as possible save for a few hundred and replacing it with the second edition. (The second edition takes advantage of the extra space afforded by the edit to enlarge the words “Massen-Versammlung” in the lower half.)
Rare. Very few of either state of this historic imprint exist in institutional holdings. Auction records reveal only two or three pairs appearing in the past forty years.
The first state bears tape repairs which have caused some toning, loss along center fold repaired and restored. Mounted to another sheet which has been affixed to the mat along top margin. Second state is evenly toned with only a small chip along the left margin.
(EXA 4492)
Sold.
