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Acts OF DELINQUENCY
LABOR REFORM

©

“The images of
death were seared
deeply in their
mind’s eye. They
told stories of pain
and terror.”

TEACHING: THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
PRIMARY SOURCES 2014
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire 1911
A Lesson Exploring Tragedy and Reform. Many
of the regulations
keeping us safe
grew out of tragedy.

By: Cheryl Lederle
March 18, 2014
Cheryl is an Educational Resource
Specialist at the Library of Congress,
where she develops
classroom materials and works with
teachers to incorporate the Library’s
digitized primary
sources into highquality instruction. Before coming to the Library,
Cheryl taught English and writing at the high
school and community college levels.
Most of us take
safe w o r k i n g
conditions for
granted,
but
few of us reof the regulations keeping
us safe grew
out of tragedy.
through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New
York City, killing 146 men and women, many of
them recent immigrants. It was later discovered
that the workers faced many obstacles as they tried

A Chronicle A SYNOPSIS
NOTORIOUS ANTI-WORKER POLICIES

Owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, it was

Acts OF DELINQUENCY
LABOR REFORM

on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place,
in Manhattan. Nearly all the workers were teenaged
girls who did not speak English, working 12 hours
a day, every day. Only one elevator was operational
and there were two stairways down to the street, but
one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing

“They hired police
as thugs to imprison
the striking women,
and paid off
politicians to look
the other way.”

was so narrow that it would have taken hours to use.

THE TRIANGLE Co. FIRE

Hopeless SCREAMS
THE SORROW BEGINS

On March 25, a Saturday
afternoon, there were 600 NEW YORK CITY March 25, 1911
workers at the factory
rag bin. The manager
hose to extinguish it, but
was unsuccessful, as the
hose was rotted and its
valve was rusted shut.
The young workers tried
to exit the building by
the elevator but it could
hold only 12 people and
the operator was able to
make just four trips back
and forth before it broke
down amid the heat and

The Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in
New York City burned, killing 145 workers. It is sadly
remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in
American industrial history. The tragedy led to the
development of a series of laws and regulations that
better protected the safety of workers.

SOUTHWEST
C
THE

HRONICLE

attempt to escape the
waiting for the elevator
plunged down the shaft
to their deaths.

This catastrophe, which led to a public outcry,
prompted updates to labor laws and reforms to

stairwells found a locked
door at the bottom of the
stairs, many were burned
alive.

velop an understanding of what happened. Primary sources can also help them understand how the
event drove substantive legislative change. Stuand attempted rescues to construct a narrative of
events. The New-York Tribune report from the day
to gather information, develop an understanding of
the context, and test hypotheses.

Souls Lost DEATH
THE HORRIFIC ENDING

Those workers who were
including the owners,
escaped to the roof
and then to adjoining
Ask students to:
1. Scan the dateline and
headline to establish what,
when and where it happened.
2. Ask students to read the sub-heads and then
write a hypothesis about the cause of the high
death toll, supported with evidence. They may use
the format “I think ___caused the deaths because
the newspaper says ___.”
3.
select one story from the page to read and analyze in depth, then jigsaw students. Groups may
construct a time line of events, including factors
contributing to the many deaths, and then spend a
few minutes comparing their time lines to those of
other groups.
4.
his or her original hypothesis about the cause of
the high death toll, perhaps as an exit card. They
may use the format “I used to think __ caused the
deaths, but now I think ___ because___.”
Students may read the New-York Tribune article
“Asch Building Fire Helps to Better Laws.” You
to support your students’ work with this complex
Other Printed Texts. End
14

- PRESS

Within 18 minutes, it was all over. Forty-nine workers had burned to
death or been suffocated by smoke, 36 were dead in the elevator shaft
and 58 died from jumping to the sidewalks. With two more dying later
workers union set up a march on April 5 on New York’s Fifth Avenue

arrived, they witnessed
a horrible scene. The
girls who did not make
it to the stairwells or the
elevator were trapped by
and began to jump from
the windows to escape
it. The bodies of the

Acts OF DELINQUENCY
LABOR REFORM

“Employees were
paid a mere $15 a
week, despite
working 12 hours a
day, every day.”

ders reached only seven
In one case, a life net
was unfurled to catch
jumpers, but three girls
jumped at the same time,
ripping the net.
owners had been neglijury failed to indict
them on manslaughter
charges.

READ OF OUR PAST AND FORWARD THE KNOWLEDGE.©

The Corruption THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST
READ OF OUR PAST & FORWARD THE KNOWLEDGE©TTPMMP

Blanck and Harris had a suspicious history. The
Triangle factory was twice scorched in 1902, while
in 1907 and in 1910. It seems that Blanck and Harris
deliberately torched their workplaces in order to coledy, as Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinkler
systems and take other safety measures in case they
needed to burn down their shops again.