Triangle Fire: Documents

Return to Investigation, Trial, and Reform

Note to researchers: This exhibit presents mainly primary documents, with a selection of secondary documents.

If you are new to research of this type, please review the difference between primary sources and secondary sources under Tips for Student Projects.

Sweat Shops and Strikes before 1911

TESTIMONIALS

- Selections from Leon Stein's Out of the Sweatshops

My First Job, by Rose Cohen
Days and Dreams, by Sadie Frown
Among the Poor Girls, by Wirt Sikes
Life in the Shop, by Clara Lemlich
The Cooper Union Meeting of 1909 (with Samuel Gompers), The Call

The Kheel Center would like to thank Mrs. Miriam Stein and Barbara Ismail for granting permission to use selections from the late Leon Stein's book.

LETTERS

Letter to Michael and Hugh-Pauline Newman

Pauline Newman was active in sweatshop reform. She had worked at the Triangle Factory, but quit before the disaster.

SONGS

"The Uprising of the Twenty Thousand"

Fire!

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

New York Times, March 26, 1911, p. 1. "141 Men and Girls Die in Waist Factory Fire; Trapped High Up in Washington Place Building; Street Strewn with Bodies; Piles of Dead Inside."
Chicago Sunday Tribune, March 26, 1911, p. 1. "New York Fire Kills 148."
New York Times, March 26, 1911, p. 4. "Stories of Survivors. And Witnesses and Rescuers Outside Tell What They Saw."
New York Times, March 26, 1911, p. 4. "Lived Amid Flames, But Nearly Drowns."
New York Times, March 26, 1911, p. 4. "Crowd At Police Station; Mercer Street is Turned Into an Emergency Hospital"
New York Times, March 26, 1911, p. 4. "Death List Shows Few Identified"
Chicago Sunday Tribune, March 28, 1911, p. 2. "Thrilling Incidents in Gotham Holocaust That Wiped Out One Hundred and Fifty Lives."
Ladies' Garment Worker, April 1911. [notice of the fire]

TESTIMONIALS

- Selections from Triangle Fire, by Leon Stein

Fire, pp. 12-14
Fire, p. 18
Trap, pp. 23-24
Trap, pp. 26-28
Eighth [Floor], pp. 37-39
Ninth [Floor], pp. 54-55
Escape, pp 70-71

- Selections from Out of the Sweatshop, by Leon Stein

Eyewitness at the Triangle by William Shepherd
Nightmare of Survival by Leon Stein

The Kheel Center would like to thank Mrs. Miriam Stein and Barbara Ismail for granting permission to use selections from the late Leon Stein's book.

LETTERS

Letter To Wm, from Charles Willis Thompson, journalist.

A journalist and member of the Washington Bureau of the New York Times and of the New York World, Thompson wrote a letter providing a witness account of the events surrounding the Fire.

SONGS

Ballad of the Triangle Fire
My Little Shirtwaist Fire

RE-ENACTMENTS

Episode V, The Triangle Fire from The Story of the ILGWU: A Radio Play in Six Episodes

Mourning and Protest

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

American Federationist, May 1911, "Hostile Employers See Yourselves as Others Know You "
Ladies' Garment Worker, September 1911, "Echoes from the Triangle Fire"
Ladies' Garment Worker, Oct. 1911, "Agitation Among the Ladies' Waistmakers, Local 25."
Outlook, April 15, 1911. "The Factory Girl's Danger."

SONGS

Mournful Song of the Great Fire(text)
Mournful Song of the Great Fire (original in Yiddish)

TESTIMONIALS

- Selections from Out of the Sweatshop, by Leon Stein

We Have Found You Wanting by Rose Schneiderman
What is to be Done? by Martha Bensley Bruere

- Selections from Triangle Fire, by Leon Stein

Protest, pp. 145-146
Dirge, pp. 152-153
Dirge, pp. 154-155

The Kheel Center would like to thank Mrs. Miriam Stein and Barbara Ismail for granting permission to use selections from the late Leon Stein's book.

Relief Work

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

American Federationist, July 1911
"The Triangle Union Relief"

REPORTS

Report of Joint Relief Committee, January 15, 1913

Investigation, Trial and Reform

NEW! Transcripts of the Criminal Trial Against the Factory's Owners

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES

New York Times, March 28, 1911, p. 1. "Blame Shifted on All Sides for Fire Horror."
Outlook, April 22, 1911, "Indictments in the Asch Fire Case"
Outlook, April 29, 1911,"Placing the Responsibility"
Literary Digest, January 1912, "147 Dead, Nobody Guilty"

LECTURES

Frances Perkins, September 30, 1964

REPORTS

Preliminary Report of the Factory Investigating Commission, 1912

New York (State) Factory Investigating Commission (excerpts)

Report to the Legislature of the State of New York
(pp. 13-20)

The Fire Hazard in Factory Buildings (pp. 28-34)

Recommendations of the Commission (pp. 38-45)

Ninth Floor Plan of the Asch Building (illustration) (p. 46)

Results of the Data (pp. 128-130)

Notes on Some Trades in Which Women are Employees, "Clothing (Women's waists)"( pp. 277-278)

Testimony of Edward F. Croker, Fire Chief (pp.14-21, 35-36, 39-40)

-the Triangle Fire, the Asch Building, and who was responsible

Testimony of G.I. Harmon, Inspector, Labor Department (p. 242-249)

-inspection of Asch Building prior to the Triangle Fire

Testimony of William L. Beers, Fire Marshal, City of New York (p. 571, 580-82)

-interrogated about the Asch Building

Fourth Report of the Factory Investigating Commission, 1915.

-Includes summary of work of the commission and laws passed as a result of the commission's work.

Last update: 5 May 2008