[ABCDE] CURRICULUM GUIDE: TRIANGLE FIRE Volume 3, Issue 1 e r I n E d u c a p a p t i o w s n P N e r o t g s r a P o m n t o g i n h s T a h e W C e u h r T r i f c u O l u e r m o C A t e T h h T e t C A o r m KLMNO e u l O u An Integrated Curriculum c f i r Resource Program T r h u e C W e a h s T h i n n g g t o n P m o a s r t g N o r e P w s n p o o a i i p t t a e c c r u I d n E INSIDE Triangle Fire Cutter’s Craft Tammany Hall and Workplace Safety 2 8 10 Reform Interview: The Workplace Academic Content David Von Drehle at the Turn of the Standards 6 9 Twentieth Century 11 September 9, 2003 © 2003 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY Volume 3, Issue 1 KLMNO An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Triangle Fire KidsPost Article: “The Triangle Fire: New York Tragedy Changed America” Lesson: The influence of the Triangle 6. What were workplace conditions in For Further Study fire on worker safety laws the early 1900s? ➤ http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ Level: All 7. What was the impact of the Triangle trianglefire/ Subjects: History, social studies fire on labor and worker safety? The Triangle Factory Fire You might also ask these questions Related Activity: Language arts and The Kheel Center at the Cornell for discussion beyond the article. mathematics University Library, in collaboration with Introduction 1. Why did immigrants such as Rosie UNITE!, provides extensive coverage Washington Post author David Von travel by steamship to America? and resources for use in the classroom. Drehle tells the story of the Triangle 2. Nearly 100 years after Rosie and Lives of the workers and the horror Waist Company fire through the other immigrants left their families and of the fire are presented in this Web perspective of Rosie Freedman, who friends in search of employment, do exhibit through original documents, was 18 years old when she died of immigrants continue to arrive in the oral histories and photographs. asphyxiation and burns on the ninth U.S. seeking work? What other reasons ➤ http://newdeal.feri.org/library/ floor of the Asch Building. Of the do people of the world have for coming d_4m.htm 146 who died in the minutes before to the U.S.? New Deal Photo Gallery: The Triangle the end of the work day most were 3. What current laws and guidelines Fire, March 25, 1911 female, immigrant workers. Workplace govern immigration to the U.S.? A dozen photographs from the archives conditions and safety, the role of of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library. immigrants in the American work force Read Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins and the power of the vote to bring Give students “Interview: David stated that March 25, 1911, was “the about change can be addressed through Von Drehle.” The author shares his day of the New Deal began.” the activities in this lesson. background and answers our questions. The reproducibles that are included in ➤ http://www.law.umkc.edu/ Read this guide are built on quotations from faculty/projects/ftrials/triangle/ Read “The Triangle Fire: New York Von Drehle’s 2003 Triangle: The Fire trianglefire.html Tragedy Changed America.” . That Changed America The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Trial, 1911 Discuss Understand the Work The site includes New York building The following questions are based Give students “The Cutter’s Art.” code and safety laws, newspaper upon the content of the KidsPost You may need to explain more about accounts and trial documents. article. how the pieces are sewn together to ➤ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/newyork/ 1. In what century did Rosie Freedman create the final product. In the Asch laic/episode4/topic5/e4_t5_s5-tt.html travel to America? Building, the Triangle Waist Company Learning Adventures in Citizenship: The 2. What job did the 14-year-old find in had cutting tables and five long tables Triangle Tragedy New York City? of sewing machines on the eighth floor; on the ninth floor, about 250 employees A PBS Kids site that covers the fire and 3. For what items did she have to worked at eight rows of sewing its place in the fight for reform. Good budget in 1911? machines. The fire began on the eighth for younger students. 4. On what day and in what year did floor where it is believed that a cutter ➤ http://www.npr.org/display_pages/ the second worst workplace disaster dropped a match or cigarette ember features/feature_1416870.html in New York history take place? in a pile of fabric scraps. This exercise The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire Describe the day. gives students practice in spatial relations. Depending on the size of Hear NPR’s Bob Edwards’ interview 5. How and where did the fire begin? paper you give students, you can have with author David Von Drehle and “The Golden Cradle.” 2 September 9, 2003 © 2003 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY Volume 3, Issue 1 KLMNO An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Triangle Fire Continued them do the math to determine how much fabric is saved in each student’s layout. The student who saved the most fabric could receive the Cutter Award. Read, Evaluate, Write Discuss with students the expectations we have today for wages, hours/week, and safety conditions at work. What do students know about the American economy at the turn of the twentieth century? What were the major businesses? Who were the political and business leaders? Give students “The Workplace at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” Read and discuss Von Drehle’s descriptions. Have students write a summary statement about workplace conditions based on the three excerpts from Triangle. Assign further research. Students are then to write their evaluation of American workplace safety based on UNITE ARCHIVES, KHEEL CENTER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY VIA GROVE/ATLANTIC several sources. A tide of immigrants poured into the fledgling garment industry around turn of the One online starting point is the 20th century. Abundant labor drove wages down and set off a brutal competition for Cornell University Library site, work. Tiny tenement rooms became squalid little factories, known as sweatshops. which, according to designers, was made “specifically to assist high Fire site: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ Research Reform school students in writing a research trianglefire/texts/stein_ootss/ootss_r Tammany Hall had managed to paper from primary sources.” This c.html?location=Sweatshops+and+Str control the election of most of New is an exemplary site that provides ikes. York’s officials since the 1860s. Its resources for the teaching of a variety David Von Drehle spent hours pouring methods and corruption were not of American history courses, contains over newspaper accounts, court records secrets, but accepted. For decades, a valuable collection of primary and first-person sources to compile a list Tammany leaders had resisted factory documents for professional historians of the 146 victims, six of whom remain investigations and reforms. Have who want to research workers’ lives, anonymous. A similar list, giving the students research the reform movement and shows the potential of the World names and ages of most of the victims that took place after the Triangle Wide Web for introducing a wider of the Triangle Waist Factory fire, is fire to the New Deal. Give students audience to the impact of labor unions found at http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/ “Tammany Hall and Workplace Safety on American history. trianglefire/victims.html. Have Reform.” A list of possible subjects for students graph the ages. Students could research is provided. Students might Meet the People compare ages and, by using names, the be asked to present their findings as Read the first person account of Rose percentage of male and females who a PowerPoint presentation, a research Cohen, a girl who worked in a shop were victims of the fire, the percent paper or a newspaper article or feature on Pelem Street and survived the fire. under 20 and other categories. series. This is found on The Triangle Factory 3 September 9, 2003 © 2003 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY Volume 3, Issue 1 KLMNO An Integrated Curriculum For The Washington Post Newspaper In Education Program Triangle Fire Continued Labor and Reform ➤ http://www.pitt.edu/ ~press/goldentrianglebooks/ childlabor.html Child Labor Overview of child labor conditions and reform. Also features the children’s book, Rebels in the Shadows, about brothers working in the mines. ➤ http://www.pbs.org/wnet/ newyork/laic/episode3/topic6/ e3_topic6.html Tammany Hall UNITE ARCHIVES, KHEEL CENTER, CORNELL UNIVERSITY VIA GROVE/ATLANTIC Before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Triangle fire was the worst workplace PBS Kids Learning Adventures disaster in New York. More than 50 workers plunged from windows as crowds watched. in Citizenship presents Tammany Afterward, coroners examined bodies for signs of life. Then police tagged the dead. Hall and introduces cartoonist Thomas Nast. Write What is this in current dollars? Visit the Using information in the KidsPost Cornell site and http://www.yale.edu/ ➤ http://www.nps.gov/elro/ article, excerpts from Von Drehle’s book yup/ENYC/triangle_shirtwaist.html. glossary/tammany-hall.htm and reproducibles in this guide, students 3.