Steps from where dozens of young immigrant Jewish and Italian women leaped to their deaths when a fire erupted in the locked sweatshop where they sewed blouses, 60 Cornell students, faculty, staff and alumni gathered Oct. 11 to honor the legacy of the Triangle Waist Factory tragedy.
At the New York City event, students held 18-by-24 reproductions of fire photos from the Triangle Fire at the in Catherwood Library, part of Cornell University Library and located in the ILR School.
They were among an estimated 2,000 people in Greenwich Village for the l dedication outside the building where a 1911 fire killed 146 workers. The disaster spurred labor protections and was a defining moment for the nation. Many students learn about the fire’s impact through a course taught by .
The images of victims and the fire carried by students provide a window into “how a tragedy can inspirecollective action leading to a transformation of the nation’s labor laws. It was important for Cornell students to carry the posters as representatives of a new generation that is increasingly pro-labor, using the past as a guide for future labor action,” said . “I was ecstatic to see the fire memorialized for future generations. The goal of any archive is to keep history alive, and it’s rare for archivists to see the impact of the history we preserve in real-time.”
.
Mary Catt is the ILR School communications director.
