It was not unusual in 1911 for girls that young to work, and even today, 14-year-olds and even preteens can legally perform paid manual labor in the United States under certain conditions. Triangle Fire I t was the deadliest workplace accident in New York City's history. Outdated building codes in New York City and minimal inspections allowed business owners to use high-rise buildings in new and sometimes unsafe ways. Despite the odds, Triangle workers went on strike in late 1909. Newspapers mostly focused on the factory’s flaws, including poorly maintained equipment. Photo source: International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University, The factory floor after the fire. An 1895 definition described a sweatshop operator as an “employer who underpays and overworks his employees, especially a contractor for piecework in the tailoring trade.” This work often took place in small, dank tenement apartments. Labor leaders like Clara Lemlich displaced many of the conservative male unionists and pushed for socialist policies, including a more equitable division of profits. 40 MIN. Presently he is working on a small exhibition on the history of the Transcontinental Railroad. As OSHA celebrates 40 years of protecting workers, we also remember the labor pioneers, safety advocates, community leaders and ordinary workers whose vision for a stronger America laid the foundations for the laws that keep workers safe and healthy today. Blanck and Harris, for their part, were extremely anti-union, using violence and intimidation to quash workers’ activities. Cookie Policy While the fire did prompt a few new laws, the limited enforcement brought about only a slightly better workplace. 17th Annual Photo Contest Finalists Announced. 1 HR 29 MIN. While politicians still looked out for the interests of the moneyed elite, the stage was being set for the rise of labor unions and the coming of the New Deal. Events like the Triangle fire drive me to keep this important history before the public. Affluent reformers such as Frances Perkins, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont and Anne Morgan also pushed for change. California Do Not Sell My Info Triangle Fire Open Archive at the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition An online collection of documents, photographs, and artworks submitted by the public that serves as "a living repository for stories, images and objects about the Triangle fire's history, context, and impact on labor, immigrant, and women's rights and everyday life today. The United States tolerates child labor to a greater extent than many other countries. As the historian Jim Cullen has pointed out, the working-class belief in the American dream is “… an opiate that lulls people into ignoring the structural barriers that prevent collective and personal advancement.”. The Triangle factory fire was truly horrific, but few laws and regulations were actually broken. Blanck and Harris were accused of locking the secondary exits (in order to stop employee theft), and were tried for manslaughter. Stories were not told and the descendants often did not know the deeds of their ancestors. Continue The 100th anniversary of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, which killed 146 workers in a New York City garment factory, marks a century of reforms that make up the core of OSHA's mission. In the early 1900s, workers, banding together in unions to gain bargaining power with the owners, struggled to create lasting organizations. Most of the garment workers were impoverished immigrants barely scraping by. She pointed out that the tragedy was not new or isolated. Unable to flee, some workers jumped from the ten-story building to a gruesome death. What the Triangle loft spaces lacked, however, was a fire-protection sprinkler system. After three weeks of trial with more than 100 witness testimonies the two men ultimately beat the rap on a technicality—that they did not know a second exit door on the ninth floor was locked—and were acquitted by a jury of their peers. The fire caused the deaths of 146 garment workers – 123 women and girls and 23 men – who died from the fire, smoke inhalation, or falling/jumping to … What were the tradeoffs that industry, labor and consumers made at the time to accommodate their priorities, as they saw them? One hundred years ago on March 25, fire spread through the cramped Triangle Waist Company garment factory on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the Asch Building in lower Manhattan. Few women smoked in 1911, so the culprit was likely one of the cutters (a strictly male job). Every week I must learn of the untimely death of one of my sister workers. Clip The Triangle Shirtwaist Strike. Every year thousands of us are maimed. Use this page to learn more about a tragic event that led to a "general awakening" that continues to drive OSHA's commitment to workers. The outrage of Triangle fueled a widespread movement. Today, as debates continue over government regulation, immigration, and corporate responsibility, what important insights can we glean from the past to inform our choices for the future? Its "Century of Safety" site provides information on the fire and the events leading to the establishment of the society. Like many other garment shops, Triangle had experienced fires previously that were quickly extinguished with water from pre-filled buckets that hung on the walls. What is a sweatshop and what was the Triangle Shirtwaist factory like? Around 1910, the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL) gained traction in their effort to organize women and girls. It occupied about 27,000 square feet on three floors in a brightly lit, ten-year-old building, and employed about 500 workers. Photo source: International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University, Mourners from the union that represented the Triangle employees gathered 10 days after the fire to remember the dead and call for workplace safety reforms. Unlike many other industrial countries, socialism never gained a dominant hold in the United States, and the struggle between labor and management continues apace. Sweatshops were common in the early New York garment industry. One of the most horrific tragedies in American manufacturing history occurred in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in 1911 when a ferocious fire spread with lightning speed through a New York City garment shop, resulting in the deaths of 146 people and injuring many more. Better and increased regulation was an important result of the Triangle fire, but laws are not always enough. In February 1910, the NWTUL settled with the factory owners, gaining improved wages, working conditions, and hours. Outside, firefighters' ladders were too short to reach the top floors and ineffective safety nets ripped like paper. Readers will be well-served in seeking out these excellent accounts and learning more. Peter Liebhold is a curator in the Division of Work and Industry at the National Museum of American History focusing on industrial history. Workplace safety, however, was not a priority for the owners. Their labor, and low wages, made fashionable clothing affordable. If blame for the horrific events is to be assigned, it must encompass a wider perspective, beyond the faults of two bad businessmen. Triangle had modern, well-maintained equipment, including hundreds of belt-driven sewing machines mounted on long tables that ran from floor-mounted shafts. ", Poster for the official Workers United/ SEIU “This is not the first time girls have been burned alive in the city. Photo source: International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University, US Labor Department commemorates anniversary of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire [3/23/12] Panicked workers were crushed as they struggled with doors that were locked by managers to prevent theft, or doors that opened the wrong way. In 1914, Blanck and Harris were caught sewing counterfeit National Consumer League anti-sweatshop labels into their shirtwaists. Use this page to learn more about a tragic event that led to a "general awakening" that continues to drive OSHA's commitment to workers. Boeing’s Everett factory, where twin-aisle airplanes are manufactured, is the world’s largest building by volume, covering 98.3 acres and encompassing 472 … The tragedy has been recounted in numerous sources, including journalist David von Drehle’s Triangle: The Fire that Changed America, Leo Stein’s classic The Triangle Fire, as well as detailed court transcripts. Harder yet, the police and politicians sided with owners and were more likely to jail strikers than help them. Privacy Statement The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory is best known for the unique fashion blouse they produced and the horrific fire that killed 146 workers, women who might have lived if the owners had been forced to ensure safety standards in the factory. the Imperial Food Co. fire of 1991 in North Carolina, CT Scans Suggest Egyptian Pharaoh Was Brutally Executed on the Battlefield, 2,000-Year-Old Figurine of Roman Love God Cupid Found in England, The Only Time in History When Men on Horseback Captured a Fleet of Ships, Oldest DNA Sequenced Yet Comes From Million-Year-Old Mammoths, Meet Farfarout, the Most Distant Object in the Solar System, In the 1980s, a Far-Left, Female-Led Domestic Terrorism Group Bombed the U.S. Capitol, A Quest to Return the Banjo to Its African Roots, NASA's Helicopter Ingenuity Will Attempt the First Flight on Mars, Human Flesh Looks Like Beef, But the Taste Is More Elusive, World's Oldest 'Industrial-Scale' Brewery Found in Egypt, Archaeologists Discover Ruins of Emperor Hadrian's Ornate Breakfast Chamber, John Quincy Adams Kept a Diary and Didn’t Skimp on the Details, Meet Joseph Rainey, the First Black Congressman, The State of American Craft Has Never Been Stronger. Competition was, and continues to be, intense. More than an industrial disaster story, the narrative of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire has become a touchstone, and often a critique, of capitalism in the United States. It was a leader in the industry, not a rogue operation. At the turn of the century, a shopping revolution swept the nation as consumers flocked to downtown palace department stores, attracted by a wide selection of goods sold at inexpensive prices in luxurious environments. Labor leader Rose Schneiderman moved the public across class lines with a dramatic speech following the fire. Sweatshops were (and continue to be) a huge problem in the hypercompetitive garment industry. Today, few realize the role that American consumerism played in the tragedy. Fire drills, common today, were rarely practiced in 1911. The uncomfortable truth is consumer demand for cheap goods had pushed retailers to squeeze manufacturers, who in turn squeezed workers. Workers in the factory, many of whom were young women recently arrived from Europe, had little time or opportunity to escape. As scholars uncover the past, bringing depth to historical figures, they also present before readers uncomfortable and difficult questions. On December 4, 1911, the Triangle Waist Company owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, faced first- and second-degree manslaughter charges after months of extensive coverage in the press. Court testimony attributed the source of the blaze to a fabric scrap bin, which led to a fire that spread explosively—fed by all the lightweight cotton fabric (and material dust) in the factory. The life of men and women is so cheap and property is so sacred. Triangle: Remembering The Fire. Deadly workplace tragedies like Triangle still happen today, including the Imperial Food Co. fire of 1991 in North Carolina and the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster of 2010 in West Virginia. Before the deadly fire, Blanck and Harris were lauded by their peers as well as those in the garment industry as the “shirtwaist kings.” In 1911, they lived in luxurious houses and like other affluent people of their time had numerous servants, made philanthropic donations, and were pillars of their community. The fire, better known as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, was considered the deadliest building disaster in New York until the WTC collapse 90 years later. The building had only one fire escape, which collapsed during the rescue effort. Twist of Faith. Long work tables and back-to-back chairs became deadly obstacles to workers trying to escape when fire broke out. Now, these buildings were housing factories with hundreds of workers. For 90 years it stood as New York's … 1 HR 20 MIN. Rarely does it rely on simple stories of good and evil or heroes and villains. This issue of Page One Economics examines two economic models used to study how education, productivity, and income are related. The story of workers and the changing social contract between management and labor is an underlying theme of the Smithsonian exhibitions that I have curated. Seeking efficiency, manufacturers applied mass production techniques in increasingly large garment shops. Get the best of Smithsonian magazine by email. In all, 146 workers, most of them immigrant young women and girls, perished in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Despite rules forbidding employees from smoking, the practice was fairly common for men. "The tragedy still dwells in the collective memory of the nation and of the international labor movement,” reads the text of an online exhibition from Cornell University's Kheel Center. What is rarely told (and makes the story far worse) is Triangle was considered a modern factory for its time. True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality. Not surprisingly, the Blanck and Harris families worked at forgetting their day of infamy. centennial commemoration on March 25, 2011, Fire-fighters could not extinguish the flames or reach the trapped workers, many of whom fell to their deaths from the windows attempting to escape the blaze. The blaze, at the Happy Land Social Club in … The Truth About Killer Robots. The media at the time attributed the cause of the fire to the owners’ negligence and indifference because it fit the crowd-pleasing narrative of good and evil, plus a straight-forward telling of the source of the fire worked better than a parsing of the many different bad choices happening in concert. Photo source: International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University, The Asch Building's single fire escape collapsed under the weight of fleeing workers and the heat of the fire. The walkout expanded, becoming the Uprising of 20,000—a citywide strike of predominantly women shirtwaist workers. A similar fire six months earlier at the Wolf Muslin Undergarment Company in nearby Newark, New Jersey, with trapped workers leaping to their death failed to generate similar coverage or calls for changes in workplace safety. Eight were enacted. Although the justice system let the families of the workers down, widespread moral outrage increased demands for government regulation. Photo source: International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union Archives, Kheel Center, Cornell University, The social impact of the fire was heightened by the thousands of New Yorkers who witnessed the horror, including Frances Perkins - who became the Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Around 1919 the business disbanded. Exactly 79 years to the day after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, another tragic fire occurred in New York City. Workers—mostly immigrant women in their teens and 20s, attempting to flee—found jammed narrow staircases, locked exit doors, a fire escape that collapsed and utter confusion. Advertising Notice They were up against owners like the Triangle Waist’s Blanck and Harris—hard-driving entrepreneurs who, like many other business owners, cut corners as they relentlessly pushed to grow their enterprise. “The victims of the tragedy are still celebrated as martyrs at the hands of industrial greed. Putting food on the table and sending money to families in their home countries took precedence over paying union dues. While Blanck and Harris successfully escaped conviction in the Triangle manslaughter trial, their apparel kingdom crumbled. These men were rightly vilified and hounded out of business. 1 HR 32 MIN. Were women organizing at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory? While the Triangle fire spurred a progressive movement that enacted many much-needed reforms, the desire today for regulation and enforcement has abated while the pressure for low prices remains intense. The garment industry, with its low economic bar to entry, attracted many immigrant entrepreneurs. The Kheel Center at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations - This site houses an extensive archive of information on the fire. Blanck and Harris were both recent immigrants arriving in the United States around 1890, who established small shops and clawed their way to the top to be recognized as industry leaders by 1911. A version of this article was originally published on the "Oh Say Can Your See" blog of the National Museum of American History. The Triangle Waist Company was not, however, a sweatshop by the standards of 1911. In response to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the city and state of New York passed regulations that would prevent similar tragedies in the future, such as … The end of the strike was followed only a year later by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, which exposed the plight of immigrant women working in dangerous and difficult conditions. He has co-curated numerous exhibitions including "American Enterprise," "Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program 1942-1964," "Treasures of American History," "America on the Move" and "Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A History of American Sweatshops, 1820 - Present." United Skates. Blanck and Harris dealt with fire hazards to their equipment and inventory by buying insurance, and the building itself was considered fireproof (and survived the fire without structural damage). Most of the workers killed in the fire were women in their late teens or early 20s. The workers pressed for immediate needs—more money, a 52-hour work week, and a better way for dealing with the unemployment that came with seasonal apparel change—over more long-term goals like workplace safety. Terms of Use After the fire, politicians in New York and around the country passed new laws better regulating and safeguarding human life in the workplace. 1 HR 41 MIN. When tragedy struck (as happens today), some blamed manufacturers, some pointed to workers and others criticized government. In New York, the Factory Investigating Commission was created on June 30, 1911. They opened a new factory but their business was not as successful. Three weeks prior to the disaster, an industry group had objected to regulations requiring sprinklers, calling them “cumbersome and costly.” In a note to the Herald newspaper, the group wrote that requiring sprinklers amounted to “confiscation of property and that it operates in the interest of a small coterie of automatic sprinkler manufactures to the exclusion of all others.” Perhaps of even greater importance, the manager of the Triangle factory never held a fire drill or instructed workers on what they should do during an emergency. ", Yet despite the power of the tragic fire story and dramatic trial, the resulting changes were only first steps in bringing about some needed protection, the underlying American belief in capitalism, including the powerful appeal of the “rags-to-riches” narrative, remained intact. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, on March 25, 1911, was the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of the city, and one of the deadliest in U.S. history. As a curator of industrial history at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, I focus on the story of working people. We will."). These resources provide detailed information on the events of March 25, 1911, working conditions at the beginning of the 20th century, and the impacts of the tragedy on workplace safety and health: New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health booklet "Don’t Mourn – Organize" (See page 7: Dr. David Michaels "We must. Primary documents include newspaper accounts, interviews with survivors, and a partial transcript of the trial of the factory's owners. He was convicted and fined $20. Blanck and Harris tried to pick up after the fire. That Jewish emotional attachment to the Democrats has continued for generations even though most American Jews today have never heard of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Under the Grapefruit Tree: The CC Sabathia Story. California artist Susan Harris was surprised, at age 15, to discover her own notoriety—as the granddaughter of an owner of the Triangle Waist Company. Workman’s compensation was non-existent at the time. Historically, the 1911 tragedy defined the Triangle workers as the victims of disaster. The Triangle factory fire gave rise to progressive reformers call for greater regulation and helped change attitudes of New York's Democratic political machine, Tammany Hall. What few building codes existed were woefully inadequate and under-enforced. 1 HR 7 MIN. Why the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Makes for a Complicated History Charged with manslaughter, the owners were acquitted in December 1911. Long tables and bulky machines trapped many of the victims. The rapidly spreading fire killed 146 workers. History is complicated, murky and filled with paradox. Sadly, the fire was probably ignited by a discarded cigarette or cigar. The 1909 Cherry, Illinois coal mine fire, which killed 259 men and boys, and the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City, which killed 146 people, mostly women and girls, were instrumental in the enactment of workers' compensation laws around the country. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers made ready-to-wear clothing, the shirtwaists that young women in offices and factories wanted to wear. Thorough and effective, the commission had proposed, by the end of 1911, 15 new laws for fire safety, factory inspection, employment and sanitation. Watch Chapter 1 of Triangle Fire. Reaction to the Triangle fire was different. Only a few buckets of water were on hand to douse the flames. In the past, tall buildings warehoused dry goods with just a few clerks working inside. 1 HR 27 MIN. Harris ran his own small shop until 1925 and Blanck set up a variety of new ventures with Normandie Waist the most successful. The youngest were two 14-year-old girls. American Society of Safety Engineers - ASSE, America's oldest professional safety organization, was founded six months after the Triangle fire. The 100th anniversary of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, which killed 146 workers in a New York City garment factory, marks a century of reforms that make up the core of OSHA's mission. Keep up-to-date on: © 2021 Smithsonian Magazine. A broader cancer challenged, and still challenges the industry—the demand for low-cost goods— often imperils the most vulnerable workers. Triangle Fire: Chapter 1. Ironically the nascent workmen’s compensation law passed in 1909 was declared unconstitutional on March 24, 1911—the day before the Triangle fire. The politicians woke up to the needs, and increasing power, of Jewish and Italian working-class immigrants. The trial was high drama with counsel for the defense Max Steuer discrediting Kate Alterman, a key witness and survivor of the fire, by convincing the jury that she had been coached and memorized her tale. In 1913, Blanck was arrested for locking a door during working hours in the new factory. Joseph Pulitzer's World newspaper, known for its sensational approach to journalism, delivered vivid reports of women hurling themselves from the building to certain death; the public was rightfully outraged. Unlocking the Cage. There are so many of us for one job it matters little if 146 of us are burned to death.”, Triangle, unlike other disasters, became a rallying cry for political change. Give a Gift. "Triangle Fire" Documentary from American Experience on PBS. or They eventually gave in to pay raises, but would not make their factory a "closed shop" that would employ only union members. Industry titans prospered, and even working-class people could afford to buy stylish clothing. Vote Now! Smithsonian Institution. Mobile site features audio tour and background of historic event, Occupational Safety & Health Administration, Information from Triangle Fire Remembrance Week, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Presidential Proclamation -- 100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, "Triangle's Echoes: The Unfinished Struggle for Worker Protection, Safety and Health", "What the Triangle Shirtwaist fire means for workers now" (Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis editorial in, Senate designates week of March 21-25, 2011 as "100th Anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Remembrance Week", "Remembering the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire", The Kheel Center at Cornell University, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Triangle Fire Open Archive at the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, US Labor Department commemorates anniversary of Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, Severe Storm and Flood Recovery Assistance, Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis speaks at a March 25, 2011, rally in New York City commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire. But the system of production largely stayed the same. Even in a legitimate factory, work was often monotonous, grueling, dangerous and poorly paid. Without laws requiring their existence, few owners put them into their factories. What set them apart from their exploited employees lays bare the grander questions of American capitalism.
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