Amalgamated Leather Companies, Inc.- Specimen Stock Certificate

Specimen Stock printed by E.A. Wright Bank Note Co., Phila.

The Amalgamated Society of Leather Workers was a trade union representing tanners and workers involved in making leather goods in the United Kingdom.

The union was founded in 1872 as the Leeds and District United Tanners' Society. Before the end of the century, it merged with the Leather Finishers' Society, Pickermakers' Society and United Grounders' Society, and in 1892 it changed its name to the Amalgamated Society of Tanners. In 1897, in an attempt to broaden its remit, it renamed itself as the Amalgamated Society of Tanners, Lacecutters and Beltmakers, and then in the 1900s adopted its final name.

The union long remained small, having 780 members in 1910. However, from 1912 it was led by a full-time general secretary, and it began to grow, reaching 12,099 members by 1954.

In 1971, the union merged with the National Union of Boot and Shoe Operatives, National Union of Glovers and Leather Workers and National Union of Leather Workers and Allied Trades, forming the National Union of Footwear, Leather and Allied Trades.

Richard Cann McMullen (January 2, 1868 – February 18, 1944) was an American manufacturer and politician from Wilmington, in New Castle County, Delaware. He was a member of the Democratic Party, who served as Governor of Delaware.

McMullen was born at Porters, near Glasgow, Delaware, son of James and Sarah Boulden McMullen. He worked as a farm hand to meet expenses while studying at Goldey Commercial College. He married Florence Hutchinson in 1895 and they had three children, Laura B., Richard H. and Florence and were members of the Methodist Church.

McMullen learned the tanning and leather business while working at the Mullin and Pierson Leather Plant, later to become the Amalgamated Leather Company. In 1917 he and two partners founded the Standard Kid Company and later became vice president, then general manager of the Allied Kid Company in Wilmington. These companies were tanneries and leading manufactures of leather products.

As a prominent businessman he had served two terms on the Wilmington City Council, had served on the Public Utilities and Unemployment Insurance Commission, and had turned down an offer to run for Mayor of Wilmington.

After reluctantly agreeing to run, he was elected Governor of Delaware in 1936, defeating Republican Harry L. Cannon, and Isaac D. Short, a Republican running as an Independent. McMullen was the first Democratic governor in 36 years and throughout his term was frustrated with his inability to replace his political opponents in state government. As his term was during the latter part of the Great Depression, public works projects were going on throughout the state, including the opening of the Roosevelt Inlet at Lewes, a new bridge over Indian River Inlet and a couple of new stations for the State Police.

McMullen was again nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for governor in 1940, but suffered a heart attack a month before the election and withdrew from the campaign. He died at Wilmington and is buried there in the Riverview Cemetery.

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