Document Analysis of The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents

In every age in U.S. history, events happen that encapsulate the very essence of the
social, emotional, and economical environment of the nation as a whole. They become defining
chapters, not because they need to be defined, but rather because, through the study of that one
event, a person can come to understand multiple aspects of that period of time. For those who
study the early industrial, social and economic history of the U.S. in the early 1900s, the
Triangle factory fire of 1911 is the epitome of a defining chapter. The aim of this paper is not to
define the tragedy as simply a list of chronological events, but as an outcome and catalyst of
social upheaval. Documents written in 1911 at the time of the Triangle factory fire, which
ultimately helped the womens movement, demonstrate how gender played an important role in
media coverage, portrayed victims of the fire more sympathetically than earlier garment strikers,
and challenged common gender roles for both women and men.
In the introduction to her book The Triangle Fire: A Brief History with Documents Jo
Ann Argersinger writes that the media attention and public frenzy that occurred in the aftermath
of the factory fire happened because it took place on a public corner in a populated part of town,
as opposed to other industry accidents that happened behind closed doors, away from the public
eye. Along with accounts in newspaper articles, there were gruesome pictures of the fire victims,
both on the sidewalk and in the morgue, to accompany the detailed accounts of death on, as one
poet described, the day it rained children (Argersinger, Introduction, 20).
Media coverage is to be expected in a workplace accident that kills 146 people, but as
evidenced from these documents, gender heavily influenced the type of coverage done. An initial
report from William Shepard in the New York World just two days after the fire, reads as a
standard, run of the mill account of what happened. There arent many distinctions between

genders as he often indivisibly groups men and women and boys and girls together, with the
exception of describing the elevator boys heroic efforts, and two girls jumping to death in
unison (Shepard, The Triangle Fire, 71-75). Contrast this with another fire coverage article
from the Chicago Sunday Tribune published one day after the aforementioned article, after many
of the victims had been identified as women and young girls. Almost every single story uses
sensational language to describe a female (most often referred to as a girl) and her frantic,
dramatic, and heartbreakingly futile attempt for survival (Unknown, Thrilling Incidents in
Gotham Holocaust, 76-79). This pattern was followed by many other journalists and is more
than a stylistic choice of writing. Women were thought to be more the more delicate, nurturing
gender, and the death of so many of daughters, mothers, and sisters spurred the media to increase
the coverage in an emotional way that played on the sympathies of American society.
When the womens movement gained momentum in unionizing workers in the years
before the tragedy, the media depicted garment strikers markedly different than the victims of the
later fire. In Allan L. Bensons account of the unionization of New Yorks East Side in 1910, he
praises the leading ladies of the movement by saying, Women who do mens work are fighting
their battles with mens weapons- fighting more courageously than most men do. (Benson,
Women in a Labor War, 61-65) For the most part, media coverage (as contained in this book)
seemed to portray the strikers as fiercely independent, adaptable women that were fighting the
injustices of society. These descriptions stand in stark contrast to the victims of the Triangle fire,
who, in the Chicago article mentioned above, are depicted in a more feminine light. Death and
tragedy have an interesting way of changing perspective. These brave, gritty girls who once held
hands at picket lines were now depicted holding hands to comfort each other as they hurled
themselves from the building, and threw trivial things down such as a pocketbook, then her hat,

then her furs (Unknown, Thrilling Incidents in Gotham Holocaust, 76-79). The women of the
fire were also seen as heroines for being working women, not just greedy for extra spending
money, as some strikers had been accused of. After a study of the budgets of the Triangle fire
victims Elizabeth Dutcher stated that they were self-reliant working women, who had never
asked for charitable assistance (Dutcher, Budgets of the Triangle Fire Victims, 94-98).
There was also the difference in how large public demonstrations were reported. Striking
was often reported like it was some sort of inconvenient mess that was constantly trying to sort
itself out with numerous speeches made up of many ifs, maybes, and buts (Benson,
Women in a Labor War, 61-65). It seemed that the public grew tired of the constant strikes.
The funeral procession for the unidentified girls in the fire however, was respectfully, even
admirably, called the largest demonstration ever made by working people and was solemnly
observed by many as the occasion for the expression of the working peoples grief, and
commanded respect and attention from people of all classes (Unknown, 120,000 Pay Tribute to
the Fire Victims, 87-90).
The coverage also debated traditional gender roles that had been heavily challenged over
the past 50 years. Women began seeking changes that would put them on equal footing with men
in every aspect of life, even working, as one popular song put it, shoulder to shoulder
(Unknown, The Uprising of Twenty Thousands, 71). In an article discussing financial aid
given to girl strikers put in jail, the writer poses this question: The girls believe that they are
entitled to have better pay and to have better food. In their case it is the same as in every other
walk in life and why should not these girls have the part of it to which they are entitled?
(Unknown, Church Aid of Girl Strikers, 66-68) The contributions of working wives and
daughters to their families as reported in the study of their budgets showed that their income had

truly become indispensible, a shift from the tradition of having the man be the sole breadwinner
(Dutcher, Budgets of the Triangle Fire Victims, 94-98).
One of the more subtle challenges in articles was not actually directed towards women,
but towards men. It was not so much an attempt to change or debate their gender roles, but to
accuse them of falling short of their self proclaimed responsibilities. If a man believes a woman
to be so fragile that she is incapable of work, should not that man who believes such principles
strive to protect her? If a man believes that frailty is in a womans nature, at what point does a
woman disqualify for protection? Is it when she is found to be unwilling to accept such
principles? Elizabeth Dutcher stated, they received no protection from their natural protectors,
those enforcing the laws of the city (Dutcher, Budgets of the Triangle Fire Victims, 94-98).
Although the fire, in its tragic wake, extinguished the lives of 146 people in March of
1911, it lit a different kind of flame in society. It lit the flame of reform. It served as validation
for the claims made by strike leaders and union groups. It served as evidence of what happens
when corruption is allowed to flourish and has no room for democratic reformation. The nation
realized, as Martha Bensley Bruere put it, that every year there are fifty thousand working men
and women killed in the United States. and slowly, very slowly, it is dawning on these
thousands on thousands that such things do not have to be! (Bruere, The Triangle Fire, 101107) This realization brought through unprecedented media attention, heartbreaking depictions of
victims and families, and the challenge of traditional gender roles, paved the way for the
womens movement to progress, because it was painfully evident that conditions could not
remain the same.