US History - Standards of Learning - USII.8
http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
This is a great site to access primary sources about the Triangle Factory Fire. On March 25, 1911, a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory on the eight floor of the Asch Building, in the garment district of New York City. The fire spread quickly, and inadequate fire exits and locked doors contributed to the deaths of 146 employees, mostly young Jewish and Italian immigrant women. This tragedy fueled the public outcry for safety in working conditions.
Among the primary sources are audio files, photos, and documents and information concerning sweatshops, the fire, a list of victims and witnesses, as well as the investigation and trial that took place subsequent to this tragedy. Below are some examples of the photographs that are available on this site.
Photos 1 & 2 10 story building where fire took place
Photo 3: Shows bodies piled up on the sidewalk
Photo 4: New York Evening Journal: March 27, 1911
Photo 5: New York Evening Journal: March 28, 1911 cover stories
Students go to website below to access Articles on the Triangle Fire:
http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/trianglefire.html
-Katherine Silva
2. *Cartoon-3/31/1911 “Door Cartoon”-New York Evening Journal
Possible student projects:
- Read the following primary sources on this site: “My First Job By Rose Cohen”
“Days and Dreams” by Sadie Frown, and “Life In The Shop” by Clara Lemlich to understand the experiences of workers in the factories and why workers endured such conditions. What were the safety hazards workers faced? Were these conditions typical or atypical during this time?
- Create a cartoon for the New York Evening Journal which addresses the issue of unsafe working conditions in the factories
- Use the Internet to research modern day sweatshops
- Create posters to illustrate changes brought about by the Triangle Fire.
-Katherine Silva
3. *Lewis Wickes Hine Document regarding Child Labor in the Canning Industry in Maryland
July 1909
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/nclchtml/nclcreport.html
Lewis Hine was a New York school teacher, who quit his teaching job in 1908 to work full time for the National Committee on Child Labor (NCLC) as an investigative reporter. The National Committee on Child Labor was founded in 1904 made up of both men and women who wanted to ban the employment of children under fourteen years of age in most occupations. The NCLC also worked for an eight-hour day, no night work, and mandatory work permits based on documentary proof of age. Hine bluffed his way into factories, to document the exploitation of children as cheap labor. He stated “There is work that profits children and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work.” Hine believed that if Americans could see for themselves the injustice of child labor, they would demand laws to end it.
-Katherine Silva
4. Child Labor 1908 -12
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html
The site is loaded with images of each segment of child labor in the US.
Each industry is represented by several images. There is also some limited
text material that accompany each frame.
-Carl Robidoux
5. Tenement Life
http://www.tenement.org/Virtual_Tour/index_virtual.html
This site contains a virtual tour of a tenement building. There is also an
audio narration that goes along with the tour. On the same site is a list of
over 2,000 artifacts that you can view.
-Carl Robidoux
6. Andrew Carnegie
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/index.html
There is biographical information on Carnegie and information on the steel
business. Additional information on his philantrophy is also featured. You
can also research the Homestead strike from this site.
-Carl Robidoux
7. Text—Upton Sinclair, “The Jungle”
http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Literature/Sinclair/TheJungle/
Landmark novel of the Progressive era, ironically this book was written to
try and expose the poor wages and working conditions of the common man in
the Chicago stockyards. Instead, the novel exposed the dangerous and
unhealthy conditions of much of the food Americans were eating
-Christopher Borden
8. Text—Theodore Roosevelt, “The New
Nationalism”
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/democrac/31.htm
August 1910 speech given by former President Theodore Roosevelt outlining
his ideas to counter the power of the giant corporations, Roosevelt proposed
bringing them under complete federal control, so as to protect the interests
of the laboring man and the consumer. This speech helps set the stage for
TR’s 1912 Bull Moose Party run.
-Christopher Borden
