March 25th marked the 100th anniversary of The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire where 146 people died. Most of the victims were recent Jewish and Italian immigrant women aged sixteen to twenty-three; the oldest victim was 48, the youngest were two fourteen-year-old girls.
I read a book a few years back entitled Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle. It was a well written and well researched book. Non-fiction books can deliver the facts but it hits home when you see pictures and the faces of the victims.
This year I watched two documentaries about this tragedy. American Experience: Triangle Fire (2011) and Triangle: Remembering the Fire (2011). Both of these documentaries touched me deeply. I'm a huge fan of New York history, especially history of the early 1900s. This story makes me angry and these 146 people didn't die in vain, because of them, we now have safer working conditions here in the good old USA.
If you want to read more about it, you can find an article on Wikepedia entitled Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
I wanted to share some photos, but many of them are extremely graphic, so the only one I can share is a picture of the fire fighters battling the fire. If you like, you can google it and see the graphic pictures, but my heart will not allow me to post them here.
I read a book a few years back entitled Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle. It was a well written and well researched book. Non-fiction books can deliver the facts but it hits home when you see pictures and the faces of the victims.
This year I watched two documentaries about this tragedy. American Experience: Triangle Fire (2011) and Triangle: Remembering the Fire (2011). Both of these documentaries touched me deeply. I'm a huge fan of New York history, especially history of the early 1900s. This story makes me angry and these 146 people didn't die in vain, because of them, we now have safer working conditions here in the good old USA.
If you want to read more about it, you can find an article on Wikepedia entitled Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
I wanted to share some photos, but many of them are extremely graphic, so the only one I can share is a picture of the fire fighters battling the fire. If you like, you can google it and see the graphic pictures, but my heart will not allow me to post them here.
7 comments:
Thank you for this bite-sized piece of our history. So sad these women had to die for things to change.
That's so tragic. Thank you for sharing.
I have caught several pieces of that documentary - it must be documentaries, because one was on HBO and I could swear the other was on PBS - but I haven't seen the entire thing.
I should really make it a priority and watch the entire thing.
So sad. All those lives lost. Tragic.
That sounds like an interesting and sad book. I look forward to more reviews during the A to Z Challenge. Good theme! (I didn't pick one other than the theme of my blog, but I'm enjoying seeing the different themes people have chosen).
A true tragedy. I would be interested in reading this book. I enjoyed your post very much. Thank you for all this information. Enjoy your day!
I've read stories about this terrible tragedy. The book sounds like it would be very good.
Contrary to my usual practice of subscribing to comments, to save time during challenge I will not be doing so during April. If you want to respond to my comment , please email me directly from your email notification for the comment.
Thanks.
Lee
Tossing It Out
Twitter hashtag: #atozchallenge
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