The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire killed 146 people on March 25th, 1911 when sweatshop workers could not escape the New York City building. The disaster led to safer building codes and worker's rights laws. However, only 140 of the victims were identified, and that list was only completed by 2003. That left six people buried without markers who were mysteries for a hundred years.
The New York Times has the story of how the last six were finally named. Link -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: Yana Paskova/The New York Times)
Now those six have been identified, largely through the persistence of a researcher, Michael Hirsch, who became obsessed with learning all he could about the victims after he discovered that one of those killed, Lizzie Adler, a 24-year-old greenhorn from Romania, had lived on his block in the East Village.
And so, for the first time, at the centennial commemoration of the fire on March 25 outside the building in Greenwich Village where the Triangle Waist Company occupied the eighth, ninth and 10th floors, the names of all 146 dead will finally be read.
The New York Times has the story of how the last six were finally named. Link -via Boing Boing
(Image credit: Yana Paskova/The New York Times)
Kudos to Mr. Hirsch for remembering the lost souls of that tragedy. They rest in peace knowing that there is someone out there who cares about them.
(I remember how I heard about this incident; a Ralph Bakshi movie, American Pop. It was a moving scene near the beginning of the film.)
On a side note, I first learned about this historical episode from the song "My Little Shirtwaist Fire" by Rasputina, from their album Thanks for the Ether.