Triangle Fire Open Museum
Making the Open Museum
The Triangle Fire Open Museum is supported by The New York Council for the Humanities The Triangle Fire Open Museum was designed, curated and conceptualized by Buscada, an interdisciplinary practice on place and dialogue, which creates projects that engender conversations between communities, individuals and disciplines to explore critical questions of cities and visual urbanism. www.buscada.com In collaboration with The Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition www.rememberthetrianglefire.org See all the 200+ objects in the Triangle Fire Open Archive rememberthetrianglefire.org/open-archive/ Photographs Š Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani
Introduction
On Saturday March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire took the lives of 146 mostly young immigrant women. The fire broke out on the 8th floor of the Triangle Waist Company, one block east of New York City’s Washington Square Park. On the 9th floor, a critical exit was locked. Fire truck ladders could only reach the 6th floor. As the fire spread, workers piled into the elevator; some tumbled down the shaft. The fire escape collapsed, and people on the street watched as workers jumped from the windows to their deaths. At the later trial, the owners, long known for their anti-union activities, were acquitted of manslaughter. Yet, this tragedy galvanized a powerful movement for social justice and became a rallying cry for the rights of workers, women and immigrants. Many of our current labor and fire protection laws were created in response to this tragic event.
Open Archive
In 2011, on the fire’s centennial, Buscada and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition developed the Triangle Fire Open Archive to explore the fire and its personal, political and historical legacy. To tell the story, we asked for objects – documents, keepsakes, images, video, audio, and even building materials – from a wide variety of communities for whom the fire has lasting meaning and contemporary relevance. Through their objects and stories, the Open Archive brings into dialogue labor, Jewish, Italian-American, women, immigrant, fire and safety professional, and garment worker communities, and brings into the conversation communities affected by the fire’s central issues and significance today. Through communal testimony and its growing collection of over 200 objects, the Triangle Fire Open Archive reminds us of our shared humanity.
Open Museum
The Open Museum is the tangible incarnation of the Open Archive, and this dispersed but deeply felt people’s museum shows real and replica objects from the online Open Archive in locations across the city that critically connect to issues of immigrant, women’s and labor rights. Past and present objects live in the presentday city, in the sites of ongoing work for social justice. Find these objects and these critical sites by taking a self-guided tour, gaining access to new places, and seeing our city’s past and present in a new way. The Open Museum is always growing, as new locations adopt objects! See the back cover for a link to the most up-to-date map of Open Museum sites and objects. Explore the whole Open Archive at: rememberthetrianglefire.org/open-archive
Rosie Weiner, my great aunt “It’s important to give people the sense that this was a real person with hopes...”
Open Archive object contributed by Suzanne Pred Bass
My great-aunt Rosie Weiner died in the Triangle Fire. Her picture lives on my living room bookcase – and it comforts me to have her there. It’s important to give people the sense that this was a real person with hopes, starting out in life…she had a fiance, she had dreams of moving to a farm… You need to see that face – I look at it and try to see who this person was.
“We still mourn our loss” “It’s a reason for people getting together to stop what’s still happening today.”
Open Archive object contributed by Norman Saul
We remade this button because the Triangle Fire is a landmark of union history and the problem of dying at work is still going on. It is not just a symbol or anniversary – it’s a reason for people getting together to stop what’s still happening today. The original button was made immediately after the fire for a rally. It’s in the Cornell archive, and says “We mourn our loss.” We’re making these buttons, although we can’t afford to make a lot, since we’re funding them ourselves. We’re trying to get union people talking to each other, no matter what union they’re in.
WE ARE ONE
“To fight for your rights, you’ve got to understand what your rights are...”
Open Archive object contributed by Mei Yin Tsang & Alice Ip
I’m Mei Yin Tsang - This newsletter is from 1982, at the big strike in Chinatown. This is walking on Canal Street and on Mott and Bayard Streets to the rally in Columbia Park. There’s the ILGWU president speaking - and there’s the speech, there’s Sister Ho - where they said, I love you Sister Ho! I’m Alice Ip - People asked me, “how can I call you?” So, I made it simple, we’re like family, so call me Sister Ho. That’s why the slogan is “We are One” - one family. We help organize and educate the members about their rights - to fight for your rights, you’ve got to understand what your rights are.
Triangle Fire Open Museum
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See all the 200+ objects in the Triangle Fire Open Archive : rememberthetrianglefire.org/open-archive/ Find out about the creators of the Open Archive : www.buscada.com Get involved with the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition : www.rememberthetrianglefire.org
Snap the code to find all the objects on a live map of the Open Museum!