Industrial Worker newspaper

The numbering system is very confusing and makes little sense to me. The September 4, 1913 issue is "Volume 5, Number 21". February 17, 1917 is "Volume 1, Number 45". October 1, 1927 is "Volume 4, Number 39 (Whole No. 563)" It seems to follow this numbering system until sometime between 1934-1936 when I think it restarts. Then it changes sometime between 1940-1970 and its the format we have today. I may have to just give up trying to figure this out and stick to organizing these strictly by dates instead.

Ha ha yeah that seems a bit ridiculous! I guess they must restarted it on multiple occasions, maybe when it moved cities/editorial teams? I guess doing it by date is simpler, so I would stick with that, but just have the volume/issue number somewhere in the text or intro

Yeah that's probably what I'm going to do. Maybe add a note about numbering problems.

Part of my confusion also is that I apparently can't read Roman numerals! Embarrassing, considering I'm an avid (American) football fan...

Ha ha oh dear hopefully sorted now? BTW is there anyone who could help you with this? We could try to do a call out on FB, or maybe the IWW could do one as well?

Really the only help I need is getting access to the materials. The IWW started putting PDFs of current Industrial Worker issues online in 2005. Marxist Internet Archive put up PDFs of the paper until 1913. So 1914-2005 is only out there in hard copies, microfilm and bound reprints. Quite a few institutions such as historical societies and universities have microfilm going up until the 1940s at least. Very few universities have the bound reprints, I haven't come across them at all actually and have only heard second hand that they exist. Probably the most difficult period to track down is 1950s-1990s, which seem only to exist as scattered hard copies in institutions and people's homes.

Finally finished uploading 57 issues from 1917-1940.

Good stuff. Appreciating all the post WWI materials.