In our current social studies chapter (chapter 17), we are learning about major changes the United States went through in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This was a time period of mass immigration, with many immigrants coming from Eastern Europe and entering the US at Ellis Island. Several students in our class can trace an ancestor to this time period. There were major economic changes as well. An economic boom took place, with thousands of Americans moving to increasingly crowded cities to work in new factories. Unfortunately, safety regulations were far behind the economic progress (as we also learned in studying the Titanic last week).
This week marks the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York. This factory was staffed mainly by women of Eastern European Jewish and Catholic descent. It came barely a year after Jewish shirtwaist factory workers had led a strike in New York, protesting the unsafe conditions which would later lead to the tragedy.
Please look at these links to honor the women and children who perished in the fire.
Watch "Triangle Fire" online (a production of PBS's "American Experience")http://video.pbs.org/video/1817898383/
Jewish and Catholic women of the Triangle http://www.readthespirit.com/friendship-and-faith/2011/3/24/honoring-the-women-behind-the-triangle-shirtwaist-fire-heres.html
Shabbat Rose http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/70017/jewish/The-Shabbat-that-Kept-Rose.htm
Take a virtual tour of the Tenement Museum to see how & where immigrants in New York at this time lived
http://www.tenement.org/
