Triangle Shirtwaist Workers Monument

Through the course of this class I became startlingly aware of the stolen and lost narratives of women in history. Women who made impacts on their communities but have still somehow faded into obscurity. Women whose existence were deemed unimportant and uninteresting. Their stories are hidden pieces in a puzzled history often waiting to be discovered by closer readings, attentive excavations, and dogged feminist curiosity. But somewhat even more concerning to me is the forgotten women of post modern history. There are women who shaped society and have substantial information recorded about them, yet they have still been passed over in the generalized history of the world. In Time Magazine’s “data-driven” list of The 100 Most Significant Figures in History, Elizabeth I of England, Queen Victoria and Joan of Arc are the only women who made it. The same numeric incongruity is exhibited by the monuments in New York City. What I came to realize is that those who are remembered are those who are seen, literally. That is why more monuments and pieces of public art are needed to ensure the prolonged historical relevance of women.

When I think of forgotten women in New York City, the first thing that comes to mind is the women and girls who worked at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. The story of these women stuck in my memory after reading a brief subsection about them in my high school history textbook. Everytime I walk by the Brown Building on Washington Place, I look up to the 8th and 9th floors, ponder the cobbled street and the women who died on the same stones below my feet, and feel bitter disappointment at the fact that most people walking past me have no idea the events that happened here.

In a powerful speech given in Washington Square Park in the fall of 2019, Senator Elizabeth Warren gave a visceral account of the tragedy that occurred right there on March 25, 1911. She made the powerful acknowledgement of the omission of this history in the park's monumental landscape saying:

This statement rang in my head as I conjured up the idea for a monument to honor those women. I knew I did not want it to be directly interacting with the building, feeling that the structure and the tragic fire that took place there are then what becomes the focal point of the monument, subsequently omitting the significance of these women's lives both before and after the fire. I decided to make an arch that would be located at the east side of the park’s entryway, aligning with Washington Place where the Brown Building is located just a block down the street. This arch would not rival the Washington Square Arch necessarily, but it would have a juxtaposing effect. Despite the varied use of the land, protests, speeches, and so forth that have happened there, the only monuments in place are the Washington Square Arch, a bust of steel engineer Alexander Lyman Holley, and a statue of the 19th century Italian General Giuseppe Garibaldi. This would finally introduce the first piece of public art relevant to the community's history in the park.

I like the idea of doing something that in terms of public art is actually quite traditional like an arch and detailed high relief sculptural work. This would feel aesthetically appropriate in the environment and appropriate to the period of time the women being honored lived. About 15 feet high and made of bronze in a mix of high relief and bas relief style sculpture, the monument would be a quite literal visual narrative arc of these women’s lives. I believe making something much more visual would garner more attention being that humans in general are much more drawn to things that are visually stimulating. These women were also poor immigrant workers speaking varied languages, some likely illiterate. Here would be a story that all types of people could see and understand.This would of course necessitate the advisement of historical experts within the community like the Tenement Museum in the Lower East Side and working with families of the victims to ensure they feel their loved ones are being honored properly.

The images would move from starting from the bottom left to right of the arch. Scenes would show the development of the workers movement and the Triangle Shirtwaist women’s involvement from striking in front of the Asch Building (now Brown Building) to inspiring the single largest work stoppage in the city's history to this date. The turning point in their story and thus in the arch is the fire that took place on March 25, 1911. A large section of the right column would be dedicated to portraits and/or engraved names of the 146 workers who perished in the fire. The aftermath and impact of these women’s lives would proceed down the right column of the arch with references to the legislative action that finally took place posthumously. Scenes would also depict the cooperative efforts of organized labor and politicians into a cross class network of reformers. Lastly, the iconongraphy of the Womens Suffrage Movement will be included, alluding to the many women who survived or had marched with the Triangle Shirtwaist women previously and went on to be fervent supporters of the Women's Suffrage Movement.

There are multiple key symbols I want to include in the relief imagery of the arch. Starting at the bottom left, would be a view of the Statue of Liberty as seen by immigrants coming to New York with hands reaching out for it. The statue is a symbol of refuge and the American dream, but the distance from it is also representative of the inaccessibility of this dream. These women and workers were surrounded by the language of democracy--freedom, equality, opportunity--yet they had none.

The next symbol is that of scissors on empty work desks. When the Triangle Shirtwaist women put down their scissors and walked out of the factory, they were leaving the only thing that stood between them and starvation. Simultaneously, they cut their ties to a docile identity of the past, and liberated themselves from the tyranny of industrialization. Thread would then tie around the left column with a guiding needle pointing up. The needle and thread had once been items docked from their pay because they constituted items used for production which was somehow the workers responsibility. As these women collectively spoke out, they sewed bonds of solidarity.

At the top of the left column just as the arch begins to curve with scenes of the fire, a ladder would extend off the facade towards the flames but not touching. This would serve as a reminder of shortcomings of the past, but also constitute a sign of upward mobility which is what these women dreamt of for themselves and their families. Billowing out of the flames would be floating shirtwaists. The shirtwaist which these women spent 14 hours a day 6 days a week making were now the empty representations of those who perished. The shirt style also became the working woman's uniform and a symbol of female independence, reflecting the alliance of labor and suffrage movements to come.

The right side of the arch would have a broken column protruding at the top, a symbol that has been used to indicate a life cut short and memorialize the death of someone who died young. Lastly, the overall concept of an arch is symbolic in itself. The tradition of arches comes from Roman emperors who erected these monuments to celebrate military victories. The loss of their lives is usually what these women are solely remembered for, but it is important to note that they were in fact at war against an oppressive system, they fought at the front lines, and despite their deaths, the change they advocated for was still achieved. They are martyrs of an ultimately victorious battle. Because of this traditional association of arches with military victory, particularly male victories, it would be a quite empowering twist on its historical roots. The arch would now be a symbol of both loss and triumph by underrepresented women.

Overall this monument would also serve as a reminder of the power women hold to bring about change. These women also believed they would make history, but were unaware that they were to be the ultimate sacrifice in driving that change. This is why it's important to keep their story visible and alive. We must personify these women not once a year on the anniversary of their deaths or in obligatory brass plaques on the building which was the bane of their existence, but in a much more monumental way.