Digital Collections

The Triangle Factory Fire

Time Periods: 20th Century, 1910
Themes: Labor

This web exhibit and archive presents an extensive and well-organized collection of original documents and secondary sources on the Triangle Fire, held by the Cornell University Library. The bulk of the primary sources were drawn from the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union Archives which, along with the records of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America, form the basis for the archives of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE!) which reside at Cornell.

This site includes selected information on a terrible and unnecessary tragedy involving the death of many young working women in a New York City sweatshop at the beginning of the 20th century and the resulting investigations and reforms. You will find original documents, oral histories, and photographs. You can hear and read first-hand accounts by survivors and others that will provide a glimpse into the lives of workers and a sense of the horrors of a factory fire that claimed the lives of 146 young workers.  [Description from website.]

The website includes a list of the victims with background information about each one.

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