HIUS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Gibson Girl, Sweatshop, Fire Escape
HIUS 131 – Lecture 13 – The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire and its Significance
Introduction
• March 25, 1911 fire in Triangle Shirtwaist Factory In NYC, probably started by cigarette butt
thrown in trash can/on a table
• Garment factories very flammable due to cloth everywhere
• Factory on 8th, 9th, 10th floors in a building in Manhattan, near Washington Square Park
• Factory employed 500 people, mostly young immigrant women in their late teens
• Saturday evening, and looking forward to going out that night and having Sunday to rest before
coming back to work on Monday morning
• When fire broke out, many of the women were going to the changing room to get out of work
clothes and put on clothes for night out
• 145 of the workers died
o Many jumped from 8th floor windows
• Ladders used the fire opa ouldt reah eod the sith floor
• Hose iside of the uildig didt ork
• Frot doors ere loked, ak door didt ope fro the iside
o Matter of policy, not accident
• Owners of the factory worried the workers would steal shirts on the way out, so
purposefully made it difficult to workers to make it out on their own
• Fire escape collapsed
• Fire went on for half an hour
• Cotto etreel flaale, ad the fator seed otto louses for oes shirtaists
• Workplace deaths were routine
o 100 Americans died on the job every day
o Factory deaths were a fact of life during the first decade of 20th century
• Fires were not particularly unusual
o 4 months before, an almost identical fire killed 25 women in Newark, NJ
• Workplace safety almost entirely unregulated
• Triangle Fire had tremendous political impact
• Fire points to tenuous relationship between WC women and maternalist reformers
o Points to alliance based on gender, but an alliance that was tenuous because of class
• Theme: changing culture of WC women, rise of consumer culture
Shirtwaists: The Gibson Girl
• Blouses/shirtaists sigified hage i oes fashio
• At turn of century, biggest industry in NYC the garment industry, producing mass-produced
clothing for the US
• Triangle Shirtwaist Factory produce shirtwaists, a fashion sensation introduced in mid-1890s
• Shirtaists = oes louses or ith elt, ad usuall a plai, dark skirt
o Decorations changed from year to year to keep them selling
• Collars, patterns, etc.
o Skirts shorter than earlier skirts, to prevent them from picking up dirt on the streets
o More modern
• A woman who could walk quickly through the streets
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• Ready-made clothing
• Signified mobility and a degree of athleticism
• Gibson Girl the image of the young, modern women of the 20th century
o Always wearing a shirtwaist
o Charles Dana Gibson immortalized the shirtwaist with his images of the Gibson Girl, the
modern girl of the 20th century
Mass Production: Sweatshops and Factories
• Much of the work of the garment industry went on in sweatshops in tenement buildings
• Sometimes, children worked along with women
• Seatshop = high teperatures due to ad etilatio, osses ould seat ages out of
workers
o Sweat wages = a girl promised 5 cents for every cuff she made, but then at the end of the
week, bosses would deduct cost of needle and thread
• Average workweek was 84 hours
• By time of Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, sweatshops were on decline as factories were becoming larger
and more consolidated in larger factories like the Triangle Factory
o All of the stages of work to produce a garment unified in a larger setting
• Bringing all of the work under a single roof
• Sweatshops based on contracts
o Manager of sweatshop contracting with factory, a sub-contractor who would hire the
sweatshop works and get paid by a wealthier man who owned the factory where the work
went on
• Owners of Triangle Factory got their start as sweatshop managers, but earned enough to start
their own factory
o Max Blanck and Isaac Harris
o Wives were related, so kind of a family business
o Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, just like a majority of the women that they
employed
o Earned their trade in Europe before they came to US, like many others
o 1900, went into business for themselves, and in 1902 moved into the building where the fire
took place
o B the tie of the fire, ko as the Shirtaist Kigs
• Flagship factory was Triangle, but they also had other factories in NY, NJ, PA
o Very rich
o Most of managers at factories were also related to them
o 60% of the women who worked in their factories were also Jewish immigrants from Eastern
Europe
o Success based entirely on the popularity of the shirtwaist
• Fashionable commodity that crossed class lines
• Factories more efficient than sweatshops, and in some ways, lowered costs of production
• Factories not entirely a good thing for owners
o Brought hundreds of women together, so they could cat with each other on the job and be
politicized
The Labor Movement in the Garment Industry
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Document Summary
Hius 131 lecture 13 the triangle shirtwaist factory fire and its significance. Introduction: march 25, 1911 fire in triangle shirtwaist factory in nyc, probably started by cigarette butt thrown in trash can/on a table, garment factories very flammable due to cloth everywhere. Factory on 8th, 9th, 10th floors in a building in manhattan, near washington square park. Factory employed 500 people, mostly young immigrant women in their late teens. Ladders used (cid:271)(cid:455) the fire (cid:272)o(cid:373)pa(cid:374)(cid:455) (cid:272)ould(cid:374)(cid:859)t rea(cid:272)h (cid:271)e(cid:455)o(cid:374)d the si(cid:454)th floor: hose i(cid:374)side of the (cid:271)uildi(cid:374)g did(cid:374)(cid:859)t (cid:449)ork. Fires were not particularly unusual: 4 months before, an almost identical fire killed 25 women in newark, nj, workplace safety almost entirely unregulated, triangle fire had tremendous political impact. Fire points to tenuous relationship between wc women and maternalist reformers: points to alliance based on gender, but an alliance that was tenuous because of class, theme: changing culture of wc women, rise of consumer culture.
