Module Overview

Linocut print of an illustrator at their desk from the novel White Collar

Introduction

Giacomo Patri was born in Italy in 1898 and immigrated to San Francisco in 1916. He had polio as an infant and used a cane throughout his life but despite this was an active hiker and amateur fencer.  In San Francisco, he worked as a tailor, elevator operator, and in a mattress factory and participated in Italian American literary, theater, and athletic clubs. He studied at the California School of Fine Arts and went on to work as an illustrator, in newspapers and radio, and as an art teacher at the California Labor School and his own Patri School of Art Fundamentals.

After graduating from art school during the height of the Great Depression, Patri was unable to find a job and survived by teaching drawing, fencing, and Italian and painting signs and murals for local stores. His experience during those "precarious times" inspired him to create his novel White Collar illustrating "... the necessity of unity among all American workers and voters" ("Giacomo Patri"). The novel used only linocut illustrations with no text to depict the "principal division... between white-collar workers and blue-collar workers, the former not wanting to be considered workers" ("Giacomo Patri"). Patri created White Collar at home with help from his family using his own linoleum and printing press to engrave, print, bind, and distribute the novel. It was later distributed at a Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO) convention.

While working for the San Francisco Chronicle as an illustrator Patri perfected his scratchboard technique which became his chief vehicle of artistic expression. He also began teaching art to working men and women at the California Labor School where he developed his teaching philosophy that "creativity is present in everyone, that its expression is a basic human need..." ("Giacomo Patri"). In the 1930s and 1940s, Patri illustrated publications for many labor unions, including the Pile Drivers, Bridge, Wharf and Dock Builders Local 34, ILWU Local 6, Marine Cooks and Stewards Association, and the California Retail Clerk's Association. He was a member of the Newspaper Guild and Artist's Equity Association and taught art until his retirement in 1966.

Learning Outcomes

Through this module, students will be able to: 

  • Analyze how social movements have used art to communicate, organize and advocate
  • Discuss the work and legacy of the California Labor School
  • Analyze the use of images by Giacomo Patri to communicate with workers about unionism

Overview of Sources

This module covers Patri's work at the California Labor School and with union pamphlets and his novel.  Each primary source includes guiding questions.

  • California Labor School: Class catalogs
  • Pamphlets — Pile Drivers: How to Organize on the Job
  • Pamphlets — International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU): Behind the Waterfront, Welcome: Warehouse Union Local 6, Organize now: A manual for active unionists
  • Pamphlets — Marine Cooks & Stewards: A Word to the New Men in the Marine Cooks and Stewards Association
  • Pamphlets — California Retail Clerks' Association: Thousands of People Like You
  • Graphic Novel: White Collar: Novel in Linocuts

This module was created by Cabrillo College Links to an external site. Librarians Michelle Morton and Aloha Sargent and Labor Archives Research Center Links to an external site. Director Tanya Hollis. 

Collection of Giacomo Patri Materials Links to an external site., larc.ms.0056. Labor Archives and Research Center, San Francisco State University.

"Giacomo Patri:  Retrospective 1930-1978." Museo Italo Americano, 1982.

Patri, Giacomo. White Collar: A Novel in Linocuts Links to an external site.. Giacomo Patri Collection, 1940, Labor Archives & Research Center, San Francisco State University.

Masereel, Frans, et al. Graphic Witness: Five Wordless Graphic Novels Links to an external site.. Firefly Books, 2021.