Before and After- Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Tragedy
Research and report on one of the following topics below- you will not be allowed to
research anywhere else except for your book and the following hyperlinks- if you need to
research elsewhere –talk to Mrs. Wolf.
Type up your findings (should be about a page long –at least) double spaced, name and
title, please reference all sources used in a works cited page.
The Groundwork for Change: Before the fire, how were people working to improve safety and
work conditions in the Triangle Waist Company factory and other factories? How did people like
Clara Lemlich Shavelson attempt to organize workers to strike, and what were the outcomes?
What other factory fires had already occurred? Read primary sources, including testimonials and
letters and newspaper accounts of the day.
Immigration Then and Now: From where had many of the Triangle factory workers
emigrated? How does the immigrant population in New York City and the United States in the
early 1900s compare with the numbers today? Use our collection on teaching about immigration
to create a snapshot of immigration then and now. Three useful resources are the Immigration
Explorer; Mapping America: Every City, Every Block; and Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census.
From the Triangle Fire to Today: What is the legacy of the Triangle fire? Trace the impact the
fire had on the following: women’s history and rights, workers’ rights, workplace safety, fire
codes, the American socialist movement and immigrant issues. Starting with the many archival
news articles found on the Times Topics Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911) page,
Remembering, Moving On: What happened to the Asch Building, where the Triangle factory
was housed on 3 of its 10 floors? How are the fire and its victims remembered at the site?
Research how New York University acknowledges the event and find how other sites of tragedy
around the country or around the world have been recreated, like the Oklahoma City National
Memorial & Museum on the site of the former Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, or
repurposed, like Virginia Tech’s Norris Hall and the new library at Columbine High School. You
might also look at the plans for the new World Trade Center
The Garment Industry Today: What is the state of the Manhattan garment industry? Watch the
video “Struggling to Stitch,” jotting down details that answer these questions: How did the
Triangle fire lead to changes for garment workers and the factories that employed them? What is
a day laborer? How does a union shop differ from a non-union shop?
Sweatshops, Workers’ Rights, Consumer Choices: As the Dartmouth College historian
Annelise Orleck says in an NPR interview about worker safety 100 years after the tragedy: the
Triangle fire “is not ancient history. It’s very real. It’s very present and it’s in all of our closets.”
What does she mean? What is a sweatshop? Compare the working conditions in the Triangle
factory with the conditions in today’s sweatshops, including what is happening in other
countries, from the good to the bad.
United for Workers: What are the pros and cons of labor unions? Research how unions work,
people’s attitudes toward unions, recent union-related protests in several states and the history of
the United States Department of Labor. You might use this Q & A from Steven Greenhouse, the
labor and workplace correspondent for The Times, who is responding to reader questions about
the evolution of the nation’s labor laws and labor unions since the Triangle fire.