#triangle shirtwaist factory fire

[leannareneehieber]

(Pictured: Carnations laid in honor of the dead at the sidewalk of NYU's Brown Building. Photo by Leanna Renee Hieber)

On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Asch Building. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire took the lives of 146 people, most of them women and girls. As a NYC tour guide of over 15yrs, I speak about this site with vehemence. Never forget the importance of modern labor laws and the lives lost before we gained these rights. Andrea Janes and I wrote about this site, and its importance in the capacity of residual haunting, in our book A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN. Our chapter on the fire, Industrial Monsters, is up on the Boroughs of the Dead blog: https://boroughsofthedead.com/industrial-monsters-ghosts-of-the-triangle-shirtwaist-factory/

Please support union workers and legislation aimed at shoring up worker protections. Honor the dead.

[copper-dragon-in-disguise]

Ik you like talking about this and I’m actually like rly interested so what’s the aids quilt and triangle shirtwaist factory fire?

(It’s in your bio and as you probably know I hate looking stuff up and prefer talking to people-you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to)

*jumps up like the human equivalent of !!! and sprints to the computer to answer this properly with sources and shit* !!!!!!!!!!!

YOU WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FACTORY FIRE AND THE AIDS QUILT?????????? !!!!!!!!!!!! YOU ARE GOING TO REGRET THIS SO MUCH ASTER I'M SO EXICTED I'M NOT GOING TO SHUT UP FOR LIKE AN HOUR THIS IS AMAZING

(you have unlocked the Special Interests and now i won't shut up ever. :DDDDDDDDDD)

....well. I wasn't going to put a cut and then it got really, really long, so there's a cut about halfway through for the sake of peoples dashboards.

first up:

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

(tw/cw: intentional endangerment of workers, death, suicide (unplanned/unintentional), graphic depiction of death)

short version: the triangle shirtwaist factory fire was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in US History and, I believe, the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City. It was a key point in labor rights & union movements, and 146 people died, almost all recently immigrated women and girls between the ages of 14-23.

long version: at ~4:40 pm on march 25th, 1911, a fire broke out in a scrap bin under a cutting table in the triangle shirtwaist factory, which occupied the 8th, 9th, and 10th floors of the Asch building in new york city (manhatten, greenwich village specifically).

the factory produced shirtwaists, a popular kind of women's blouse. (it was a sweatshop, which is relevant for future reasons). It was owned by Max Blanck and Issac Harris, who had previously had four (? possibly 3) fires at other factories, and been investigated for them (it was suspected that one or more of those said fires were the result of arson by the owners). the workers were, for the vast majority, recently immigrated jewish & italian women and girls, from age 14 and up, but most were between 14 and 25. The oldest victim was 43. (of the victims whose ages are known). They earned $7-12 a week (approx. $190-326USD in 2020 dollars), or approx. $3.65-6.29 per hour in today's money. at the time of the fire, there were approx. 600 workers in the building.

the asch building was 10 floors in total, and the top 3 were occupied by the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The doors leading to the staircases were locked, to prevent workers leaving early or taking breaks. There were supposed to be 3 staircases, but there was only two; the city had allowed the owners to build a single fire escape in lieu of the third staircase. this fire escape may have been broken before the fire, and it was certainly broken afterwards. one of the staircases managed to be unlocked, but it became impassible either up or down within 3 minutes of the fire's start.

when the fire flared up, the first alarm was sounded by a passerby outside, who saw smoke coming out the windows at 4:45 pm.

the fire department arrived shortly after, but their ladders could only reach the 7th floor (the fire start on the 8th). some workers excaped via the roof (several years ago I heard a story about a guy who was teaching in the building next door and him and his students saw the people on the roof and were able to help them get over to the building the professor was in and not ontop of the burning one, but I can't find it again to validate it so take that with a grain of salt), and some got into the elevators while they were still working. the elevator operators were able to make 3 trips before the elevators stopped working from the excessive heat (the steel beams holding them bent and made it impossible to attempt).

inside the building, people on the 8th floor were able to warn people on the 10th floor by means of a telephone, but with the staircases locked there was no way to warn those on the 9th floor, and a survivor said (paraphrasing): ''the first warning of the fire arrived at the 9th floor at the same time the fire did''.

146 people died. 123 women and girls, the vast majority between the ages of 14-23, and 23 men and boys (I cannot find a clear age for them). 61 people died from jumping to their death or falling to their death out of the windows of the building. the fire department had nets meant to catch people, but velocity is velocity and the nets did nothing. people jumped out the windows hoping that the nets would catch them or they might survive, or that at least that had a better chance of survival than remaining inside the fire. 20 of these were on the fire escape & attempting to use it when it collapsed, dropping them 100ft to the sidewalk and killing them.

36 people died in the elevator shaft, after it started to break. (they attempted to jump/slide down the cables, and it did not work).

49 people burned to death or suffocated in the smoke.

the entire fire took 18 minutes.

The bodies of the victims were taken to Charities Pier (aka Misery Lane) to be identified. All but 6 were, and those 6 were buried together in the Cementer of the Evergreens in brooklyn (they were later identified by a historian named michael hirsch in 2011, after 4 years of research). they are now all buried together there, underneath a monument to the tragedy.

it caused a surge in the efforts of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union, and eventually resulted in the passing of ~38 new york state labor laws.

The AIDs Quilt

(tw/cw: regan (referenced), death (nowhere near as bad as above))

The AIDs quilt is a memorial quilt commemorating those who have died of AIDs (at any point, not just during the AIDs crisis (fuck you ronald regan)), with panels sewn by family members and friends. It was begun in 1987 in San Fransisco by Cleve Jones. It is considered the largest community folk arts project in the world, and consists of nearly 50,000 panels honoring approx. 110,000 people.

Each panel is 6' by 3' (about the size of a standard grave), and four of them are sewn together to make large blocks that are then sewn/tied together. sometimes it goes on display, the most recent time in june 2022.

there is an interactive online version of the quilt, which you can find here.

here it is zoomed out as far as I could get

here are some of the larger blocks of the quilt

and here are some individual panels.

that's mostly all I have to say about it, but its incredible, and my favorite art project of all time.

(i don't have the spoons to add image descriptions to the photos, I am sorry, I will try to do it later when I remember)

[historysisco]

On This Day in New York City History March 25, 1911: A deadly fire erupted in the Asch Building located on 23-29 Washington Place which led to the deaths of 146 people (123 women and 23 men.)

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory occupied the 8th, 9th and 10th floors of the Ashe Building. Blocked stairwells and locked exits hindered the attempts for those trapped by the blaze to be rescued and to escape. The only fire escape collapsed due to the weight of those trying to escape the fire. The Fire Department was also hampered by having ladders that reached up to the 6th floor. Many leapt to the deaths trying to escape the flames.

The Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law was signed in October 1911, which required sprinkler systems to be installed in buildings. The Factory Investigative Committee was also formed whose observations led to 20+ new laws being passed in the areas of building, fire amd workers safety.

With the overwhelming majority of those killed being immigrant women who often worked grueling 50+ hour, six day work weeks, the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU) saw a rise in both membership and prominence.

While tragic, many of the lessons from that day were learned and applied in safer environments for workers today.

#TriangleShirtwaistFactoryFire #AschBuilding #LaborHistory #SafetyHistory #WomensHistory #WomensStudies #HERStory #NewYorkHistory #NYHistory #NYCHistory #History #Historia #Histoire #Geschichte #HistorySisco

[lightdancer1]

Social progress is written in letters of blood. Seldom is this more gruesomely true than with the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire:

Garment workers in sweatshops were one of the most oppressed sections of the proletariat and not coincidentally at all they were also a very feminine section of the proletariat. The logical conclusion of this led to the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, where shitty conditions, safety, and sanitary conditions led to something not unlike the recent Grenfell Fire in the United Kingdom. It was horrific enough to jolt even the sociopathic laissez faire ethos of the 1910s United States out of its complacency, which tells you all you need to know.

[sweetmeatdale]

I think about this every time I try to push a pull door

[skywalkin-in-the-papes]

Me: *is sitting in her US Labor history class* My prof: "Imagine yourself in the time of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. You get up and you'll buy a newspaper from the corner Newsie." Me: *instantly is paying attention* My prof: *continues on with the lecture* Me: *mentally* "Whoa whoa whoa. We're just gonna buy a paper and be on our way? We're not gonna flirt with the Newsie? Come on! He's probably really charming! And he's probably got a great poisonality."

Guys, I promise I actually somewhat pay attention in this class. I had to resist the urge to actually write this up during my class.

[fractalist]

still thinking about that article that said Amazon is prohibiting the word “fire” on its internal messaging service

[thenookienostradamus]

112 years ago today, 146 people died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in New York City. Most of the victims were young women, nearly all of them Jewish or Italian immigrants.

The factory was a deathtrap to begin with - the air clotted with dust and the floor littered with fabric scraps. The clanking spindles could take off fingers in an instant. Instead of overhead sprinklers, the owners had installed a woefully inadequate (but regrettably common) series of water-filled buckets overhead. Worst of all, the front and rear entrances were chained shut to prevent workers from taking unauthorized breaks during their 16 to 20-hour shifts, or to prevent them from stealing product.

No one knows what originally caused the fire. But it engulfed four floors of the Asch Building within minutes, fueled by the fabric and the fluff in the air. Many victims died from the fire directly. Others from smoke inhalation in the clogged exits. Still others leapt from window ledges and fell 7-10 stories to the pavement below. An external fire escape collapsed, sending yet more people tumbling to their deaths.

It was horrifying, witnesses said. The fire set in motion a huge spate of safety reforms for factories.

But...the factory owners were tried for murder...and acquitted.

Since then, even today - all over the world - human beings are forced to work in deplorable, unsafe, unsanitary conditions in order to make ends meet. The poor, the incarcerated, the undocumented, the trafficked, the exploited. The lesson was never learned, not really. If we allow the few to direct the many, profit will always come before people.

Read about it. Remind others. Support workers with your voice, your actions, your money.

March 25, 1911; March 25, 2023.

[leannareneehieber]

Today is the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. This horrific event opens A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN. Read the chapter Andrea Janes and & I wrote about the avoidable carnage. Child Labor & Union-Busting remain despicably timely these days and attacks on labor law are constantly in the news. Never forget. Please share and please advocate against child labor and ANY rollbacks of labor and building safety codes! Labor law saves lives!

More about A HAUNTED HISTORY OF INVISIBLE WOMEN here. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Please never, ever, take Labor Law for granted.

[clove-pinks]

An interesting piece of trivia in Donald R. Hickey's book The War of 1812: A Forgotten Conflict: the last US veteran died in 1905, nearly a century after the conflict ended, and the last US pensioner (a daughter of a War of 1812 veteran) died in 1946. A child of a War of 1812 veteran was alive after the Second World War! It reminded me of the time a granddaughter of an American Revolutionary War veteran appeared on a 1961 television programme.

The last surviving child of an American Civil War veteran died in 2020, aged 90—child, not grandchild. I looked up the last living child of an enslaved Black American, because I know one was alive into the 2020s—Daniel Smith died only last month, in October 2022!

There is just something about having these seemingly distant eras so closely connected to living memory that feels eerie. Considering that we know that trauma can be passed on through epigenetic changes—documented in descendants of Union prisoners of war in the American Civil War—how far removed are we from the pain of our ancestors?

[brutefury]

i read all of these when i was a kid

[eurosleazarchive]

need to see oppenheimer immediately...

[furby-organist]

> "Wait until you all find out that management used to lock employees in the factories! Can't have them taking 'unauthorized breaks!'"

> "Don't ask me why that's no longer a practice!"

[jvzebel-x]

"A lifetime is a lifetime whether it lasts one night or a hundred years. I know we lived among extraordinary things but, perhaps more importantly, in extraordinary times. People may or may not remember the heroes and the villains of our day, but all that the brave among us did, and all that they were, remains with us still. We had a year in which everything changed, when the world shifted and became something new. We no longer expected cruelty or mistreatment. We expected more."

x. "The Museum of Extraordinary Things", Alice Hoffman