On March 25, 1911, 146 garment workers were killed in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, one of the deadliest industrial accidents in US history. The tragedy led to major reforms of labor law in New York City and New York State.
The Triangle company made shirtwaists – women's blouses – in a factory on the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of a Greenwich Village building (the building still stands and has been designated a National Historic Landmark). About 500 workers, most of them young immigrant women, worked a six-day week, earning the equivalent of four or five dollars an hour.
The fire began late in the workday on a Saturday. The fire marshal later concluded that it had been started when an unextinguished match or cigarette was tossed into a scrip bin beneath a cutter's table. The bin on that day held about two months' worth of scrap fabric, hundreds of pounds of flammable material; the bin and the table were wooden, and also flammable.
The factory owners had locked the doors to the stairwells in order to keep workers from taking unauthorized breaks and to reduce theft. That wasn't an unusual practice at the time, but it made it nearly impossible for workers to escape the fire. The building's elevator operators made as many trips as they could before the heat warped the elevator rails, saving many lives.
Almost half of the deaths were the result of workers jumping from the building to escape the flames. The fire department arrived on the scene fairly quickly, but had no ladders that could reach higher than the sixth floor.
The company's owners survived the fire by going to the roof. They were acquitted on criminal charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter, but found liable of wrongful death in a later civil trial, in which plaintiffs were awarded compensation of $75 for each victim.
Unions grew significantly in strength and influence as a result of the fire, particularly the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. A state commission was appointed to update New York's labor laws; of their 64 recommendations, 60 became law within two years. The changes included improved access to exits, mandatory fire extinguishers, and limits on the workweek for women and children.
The last survivor of the fire died in 2001 at the age of 107.
David von Drehle's Triangle (e-book | e-audio | print) is a thorough history of the disaster. The PBS American Experience series includes a film on the Triangle Fire (e-video | DVD), Edward T. O'Donnell's Great Courses series America in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era includes a lecture on the fire and the reforms that followed (e-video | e-audio). Christine Seifert tells the stories of several of the factory's workers in The Factory Girls (print).
Several novelists have included the Triangle Fire in their books. Katharine Weber's Triangle (e-book | print) interweaves the stories of a (fictional) elderly survivor and a young composer writing an oratorio about the tragedy. A young man's photographs of the fire are important in Alice Hoffman's The Museum of Extraordinary Things (e-book | e-audio | print | audio). The fire plays more of a background role in Sholem Asch's East River (e-book | print) and Edward Rutherfurd's New York (e-book | e-audio | print).
Beyond the realm of novels, the 1986 musical Rags (e-music), by Charles Strouse and Stephen Schwartz, has several characters taking part in demonstrations and strikes to protest the conditions that led to the fire. Chris Llewellyn's collection of poetry Fragments from the Fire (print) is inspired by the Triangle Fire, and Michael Demson's Masks of Anarchy (e-book) is a history of "The Masque of Anarchy," a political protest poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley which inspired many of the union organizers after the fire.
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March 24, 1834
John Wesley Powell was born. Powell was a professor of geology who led two expeditions to explore the Green and Colorado Rivers, in 1869 and 1871. The members of the 1869 expedition were the first white men to travel through the Grand Canyon. Powell served as director of the U.S. Geological Survey from 1881 to 1894; the USGS now gives the John Wesley Powell Award to non-governmental individuals or groups who have made significant contributions to the work of the agency. Edward Dolnick tells the story of Powell's 1869 expedition in Down the Great Unknown (e-book | print).
March 24, 1935
Carol Kaye was born. Kaye is a bass guitarist who was part of "The Wrecking Crew," a group of studio musicians who played on many of the biggest pop hits of the 1960s. You're hearing Kaye's playing on (among others) Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound," The Beach Boys' "Help Me, Rhonda," and Ike and Tina Turner's "River Deep – Mountain High." Kent Hartman tells the story of Kaye and her colleagues in The Wrecking Crew (e-audio | print); there's also a documentary (e-video | DVD) of the same name.
March 20, 1937
Lois Lowry was born. Lowry is an author of more than 30 books for children. Two of her novels have won the Newbery Medal, awarded to the year's most distinguished book for children. Number the Stars (e-book | e-audio | print | audio) is historical fiction about the rescue of Danish Jews during World War II. The Giver (e-book | e-audio | print | audio) is dystopian fiction about a boy called on to fill a difficult role in his community; Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep star in the film adaptation.
March 25, 1967
Matthew Barney was born. Barney is a sculptor, photographer, and film director. His work tends to be on a large scale, and he often revisits similar ideas in long series of works, such as the five avant-garde films that make up The Cremaster Cycle. The works that make up the Drawing Restraint series are attempts to create art while placing the artist under various physical restrictions; the documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint (e-video | DVD) follows Barney and his collaborator, Björk, as they create a large sculpture for Drawing Restraint 9.