A few weeks back, it was Louis Comfort Tiffany. After reading Clara and Mr. Tiffany
by Susan Vreeland I just wanted to find out as much as I could about the ridiculously fabulous lamps.My current obsession: The Triangle Waist Co. fire of 1911. For those who don't know, the Triangle Waist Co. was one of the biggest manufacturer of women's shirtwaists in the country. Basically a sweatshop that employed thousands of young girls from the tenements of New York City, Triangle had a reputation for mistreatment of its workers.
This week marks the 100 year anniversary of the great tragedy.
The young women and girls who were employed there, were overworked and underpaid. For every needle they broke, and the electricity it took to run their sewing machines, their pay was docked. Upon leaving every evening, management made a point to check every workers' bags and coats for stolen merchandise. To make it easier to keep track of the women who were leaving for the day, the exit was locked so nobody could escape the check for a stolen shirtwaist or needle.
This action would come back to haunt them: on March 25, 1911, a fire was started by a lit cigarette being dropped in a scrap bin. The fire spread very quickly, and because the exit door was locked, it hindered hundreds from escaping. 146 workers died in the fire, either from being trapped in the building or by leaping to their deaths to avoid the flames. Because the Triangle Co. was located on the seventh, eighth and ninth floors of the Asch Building, the firemen's ladders couldn't reach high enough to rescue the workers.
Later, the owners of Triangle were tried for manslaughter for knowing that the doors were locked.
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This story fascinates me on so many levels. First and foremost because of the time and place of the fire. New York City in the early 20th century. Fabulous.
It was also history in the making. From labor unions, to fire codes, minimum wage, and caps on workweek hours, the Triangle Waist Co. fire led to serious and profound changes in labor laws.
There is a special documentary on Netflix this month called American Experience: Triangle Fire, put out by PBS.
If you are looking to read about the historic event, I have listed below some of my favorite titles on the subject.
Triangle: The Fire That Changed America
There are so many great books out there, some fiction and some non-fiction. The ones above are just some of my personal favorites.
