The map (partial view) indicates the names and ages of all the known Triangle Fire victims. It was created for the project CHALK, based on the list provided by David von Drehle in "Triangle: The Fire that Changed America," and updated based on the original research of Michael Hirsch and comments by family members. The fire symbol represents the location of the fire in the Asch Building. On the CHALK project website, the map is clickable on each person symbol for name, age, and address. Many of the victims were teenagers.
Plan of the 9th floor - The floor plan of the Asch Building’s 9th floor, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Greenwich Village, NYC, shows the layout of eight, long tables in relation to the cloak room, windows, fire escape, elevators, and stairs. High ceilings included in the space-per-person calculations, allowed owners to employ 240 people in a relatively-small area resulting in the rapid transmission of illness among workers and leaving little space for moving safely through the room. Artist unknown, ca. 1911, from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Kheel Center collection.
March 25, 2011, is the 100th Anniversary of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in lower Manhattan. This totally preventable tragedy took the lives of some 146 people, mainly young Jewish and Italian immigrant women, some hardly more than children, who died of smoke inhalation, burned to death, or jumped to their deaths from the 9th floor factory windows. Despite the fact that the Asch Building was considered a new modern building with “fireproof” construction, there were many safety violations, illegal conditions, and construction shortcuts which decreased protections. The women workers were locked into their floors – all exits were always locked during working hours so no one could leave without notifying the supervisors, a tactic designed to prevent stealing, and many of the windows were barred.
(NOTE: I’m posting this a month in advance of the actual anniversary so that readers can have the opportunity to see the exhibit about the Fire at New York University’s Grey Galleries, and also to watch the PBS special “Triangle Fire,” which will be broadcast on Monday February 28th.)
Model of the 9th Floor, showing fire hazards, from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Kheel Center collection.
1.) Locked door to the stair well.
2.) Rusty fire escape that collapsed.
3.) Cluttered work spaces.
4.) Short ladders only reached 6th floor.
5.) Not enough water pressure.
6.) Long wooden tables became obstacles.
7.) Wicker baskets full of scraps.
8.) Oily floors spread the fire quickly.
9.) Fire nets failed to catch jumpers.
10.) No sprinkler system, only pails of water.
11.) Flammable barrel of oil.
12.) Boxes crowding the exit.
13.) Lack of a required third staircase.
The fire and consequent deaths were emblematic of the deep disregard business owners typically had for working people, especially working women, and how the pursuit of the profit motive dictated extremely unsafe working conditions in order to save money. The fire did result in some good, however: a number of important reform bills were passed to safeguard workers health and safety rights in New York State, and many of these building code and labor law reforms were later picked up on a national level under FDR’s New Deal legislation. Garment workers unions (and unions in general) were also strengthened in the aftermath of the fire, and the general populace was extremely sympathetic to their aims. The Fire was a watershed moment in labor history and progressive politics. It literally transformed American political culture, and had a profound influence on the rest of the 20th century. “Many of the people who made modern America - political leaders like Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Al Smith, Fiorello Laguardia, and Robert Wagner; social activists like Frances Perkins; and tradeunionists like Rose Schneiderman and Dave Dubinsky, were all directly or indirectly inspired by the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire,” (The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911: Tragedy and Meaning in Sweatshop New York, by Robert W. Whalen, 2001) http://www.gothamcenter.org/festival/2001/confpapers/whalen.pdf 
Photo of the too-short ladders - Fire fighters arrived at the Asch Building soon after the alarm was sounded but ladders only reached the sixth floor and the high pressure pumps of the day could not raise the water pressure needed to extinguish the flames on the highest floors of the ten-story building. In this fireproof factory, 146 young men, women, and children lost their lives, and many others were seriously injured. Fire escapes on the building were inadequate and flimsy, and collapsed under the weight of so many people trying to escape. In any event, the fire escapes were not built to reach the ground, but stopped about 30 feet short of the street. Photographer: unknown, March 25, 1911, from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Kheel Center collection.
Editorial Cartoon - In an editorial cartoon, a man wearing clothing made of money leans against the factory door which is locked with a dollar sign key, while women die in smoke and flames on the other side of the door. Artist name illegible, 1911, from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Kheel Center collection.
Typical Working Conditions in a Sweatshop - Hand sewing was done by men and women facing a narrow bench, while men operated sewing machines at a long row of paired work stations. [The men standing around in the back watching the workers and doing nothing are supervisors.] Some unethical subcontractors took advantage of newly-arrived immigrants forcing them to work long hours for the right to keep their job. A standard 56-hour week might stretch to 70 hours without overtime pay. Workers were often forced to supply their own needles and thread, and had to pay for the electricity used to run the sewing machines, and rent the chairs they sat in to work from the factory owners, (or have these charges deducted from their pay) thus assuring the owners of even more profits. Pressing the clothes, usually by men, was done with irons powered by a tangle of gas lines, and since smoking was prevalent amongst the pressers, danger from fire was rampant. Both men and women workers suffered from working conditions, with eyestrain and backaches heading the list, as well as respiratory problems from breathing in fine textile fibers in unventilated spaces. Photographer: Lewis Hine, ca. 1910, from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations Kheel Center collection.
What’s a “shirtwaist”? – A shirtwaist was a ladies’ blouse popular in the 19th and early 20th centuries, modeled after mens’ shirts – it buttoned down the front and was roomier and allowed for more movement than the typical tight restrictive bodices of previous styles. They were simple and “proper,” and women could even wear them without a jacket. Shirtwaists became popular with working women and women bicyclists (which was a new invention at that time!), and denoted the increase in women’s freedom, independence, and mobility that had occurred. It was ironic that the women and children fabricating these garments had in their own lives so little freedom. Advertisement for Priscilla Company, 1906, via Library of Congress.
Unfortunately, the Triangle Company owners’ negligence was rewarded by the collection of a large windfall of fire insurance money, and an acquittal at their criminal trial for manslaughter. They only had to pay out $75 for funeral costs for each of the victims whose families sued in a civil court action (and only 23 families of victims sued). And as a sad coda to the whole story, in 1991, 25 workers in a chicken plant in North Carolina died when a fire broke out and they had been locked in the plant by their employers. Walmart also is said to lock in their night-shift workers to prevent theft. And much of the clothing we wear is still made in sweatshop conditions, often by women and children who work in unsafe environments, both here in the US and abroad. And if any of you are wondering what all the recent collective bargaining fuss is all about, it is a good idea to do a little research on the history of the labor movement, to see all the "ordinary" rights and protections that many workers (people) now have (both union and non-union workers, by the way) - that they only have because of unions. No, they're not perfect, and they do not cover everyone, but I hesitate to think where we would be without them.
Map of Asch Building location, from: Leon Stein's "The Triangle Fire" (Cornell Univ. Press, 1962)
NOTE: On February 28th (this Monday) PBS is broadcasting Triangle Fire as part of their American Experience series.
And every year, there is a "chalk tour" of the Lower East Side on the anniversary of the Fire, stopping at each one of the known victim's houses and writing her name and age in a triangle on the sidewalk in front. If you would like to participate in this unusual mapping project, you can sign up at this website: http://streetpictures.org/chalk/ Ruth Sergel, an
East Village artist, organized volunteers, including descendants of the victims, to spread out across the city to inscribe the names of the dead outside their former homes.
"As a New Yorker you grow up with this story," she said, "but to see it this way, connected to space, it's a hidden geography of the city."
Photos from the Chalk Project from previous years. Photos by Anthony Giacchino, one of the Chalk Project participants, who chalked the names of the victims from East Harlem. Flyers are also posted on the buildings that are "chalked" to notify current occupants what it is all about. Giacchino has started a new Triangle Fire-related project called "Dead Letters," which involves mailing letters to each of the victims at the last known address to see what 146 returned letters looks like.
Interactive Map of victims' addresses, from the Chalk Project site:
Some good websites for more information about the Triangle Fire and worker’s rights:
Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations website about the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire:
For the upcoming events to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the fire, and NYU exhibit about the fire (the Triangle building site is now owned by NYU):
Art/Memory/Place: Commemorating the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire:
Short documentary about the Fire, with survivor recollections.
PBS film about the Triangle Fire:
Interactive map of the Triangle Fire and important associated locations:
East Harlem Preservation – interesting accounts of some of the records on the girls from East Harlem.
“Triangle: The Fire That Changed America,” David von Drehle, 2004, Grove Press.
I dedicate this posting to all the needlewomen, past and present, and especially to Maggie Barnacle, 1872-1973, my great-grandmother, who, as a child, sewed buttonholes on trousers in the sweatshops of New York City’s Lower East Side, and well into her 90’s could still sing old songs from the 1890’s like nobody’s business! (including remembering all the lyrics from all the many stanzas of “The Sidewalks of New York” and “The Bowery,” etc.). East side, west side, all around the town…….
