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A thread through time

Health & Safety

What did it cost in lives before workplaces were made safe?

Pemberton, Triangle, brown lung, Rana Plaza. The industry's disasters produced much of the workplace-safety law Americans now take for granted.

11 stories across 9 chapters

  1. 1870–1910 · The Garment District

    Labor

    The Sweatshop System

    Exploitation engineered into the architecture of the tenement.

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    "Knee Pants at Forty-Five Cents a Dozen"-a Ludlow Street sweatshop photographed by Jacob Riis.
    Jacob A. Riis, "Knee Pants at Forty-Five Cents a Dozen-A Ludlow Street Sweater's Shop," from "How the Other Half Lives" (1890). Public domain.

  2. 1880–1920 · The Gilded Age of Wool

    Tragedy

    The Pemberton Mill Collapse

    Lawrence's first industrial catastrophe—the disaster that haunted the city for a century.

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    The ruins of the Pemberton Mill the morning after its collapse on January 10, 1860. Estimates of the dead range from roughly 90 to 145 workers.
    "Ruins of the Pemberton Mills, Lawrence, Massachusetts, the morning after the fall," wood engraving from a photograph by Whipple, Boston. Harper's Weekly, January 21, 1860. Internet Archive Book Images, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

  3. 1911 · The Ashes of New York

    Tragedy

    The Acquittal of Blanck and Harris

    The 'Shirtwaist Kings' walked free.

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    Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, the "Shirtwaist Kings" who owned the Triangle Waist Company.
    Brown Brothers, "Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, owners of the Triangle Waist Company." Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University (ILGWU Archives). Flickr, CC BY 2.0.

  4. 1920–1930 · The Electric Loom

    Innovation

    The Death of the Shaft

    How the electric motor ended a century of belts and line shafts.

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    The power house and Columbia Duck Mill on the Columbia Canal. Opened in 1894, Columbia Mills was the first textile mill in the world driven entirely by electric motors.
    A. C. Bosselman & Co. (publisher), "Electric Power House and Columbia Duck Mill, Columbia, S.C.," postcard, c. 1910. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
  5. Innovation

    Rayon: The First Manufactured Fiber

    Trees, chemistry, and the beginning of the artificial-fiber age.

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    The American Viscose Company plant at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, the first commercial rayon plant in the United States.
    Nyttend, "American Viscose Plant from Ninth Street bridge," Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania (2019). Released into the public domain by the photographer, via Wikimedia Commons.

  6. 1940–1950 · Synthetic Warfare

    Biography

    Wallace Carothers, Inventor of Nylon

    The brilliant chemist who did not live to see his invention reach the public.

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    Technicians casting polymer at DuPont's Experimental Station during the early nylon research program led by Wallace Carothers.
    DuPont technicians casting polymer from a 250-pound autoclave, DuPont Experimental Station, Wilmington, Delaware. Science History Institute, via Wikimedia Commons. No known copyright restrictions.

  7. 1950–1980 · The Polyester Dream

    Innovation

    The Wash-and-Wear Revolution

    The shirt that promised to retire the iron.

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    A DuPont advertisement selling Orlon acrylic clothing on the promise of easy washing.
    E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Company, "ORLON teaches new fall fashions to keep their figure in the wash!" magazine advertisement, 1950s. Science History Institute, via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

  8. 1960-1985 · The Long Integration

    Impact

    Brown Lung

    Byssinosis, the Carolina Brown Lung Association, and the fight for a cotton dust standard.

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    Fifteen-year-old Bertha Bonneau tending a jack speeder in the card room of the King Philip Mill. Card rooms, where cotton was opened and combed into roving, carried the heaviest loads of the dust that causes byssinosis.
    Lewis Wickes Hine, "King Philip Mill-Card Room. Doffer on Jack Speeder. Bertha Bonneau, 15 years," Fall River, Massachusetts, 1916. Library of Congress, National Child Labor Committee Collection (cph.3b33420). Public domain.

  9. 2010–2020 · The Reshoring Frontier

    Impact

    The PPE Pivot of 2020

    What was left of the U.S. textile base, in a crisis.

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    The N95 respirator production line Honeywell set up in Phoenix, Arizona, in spring 2020.
    Shealah Craighead, Official White House Photo, Honeywell International Inc. mask production line, Phoenix, Arizona, May 5, 2020. Public domain (U.S. government work).

  10. 2020–Present · The Circular Reckoning

    Tragedy

    The Shein Reckoning

    Inside the platform that adds thousands of new styles a day.

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    A textile-recycling bin beside ordinary waste containers. Most discarded clothing worldwide is still landfilled or incinerated.
    Daniel Capilla, "Textile Recycling Container and Waste Containers," Málaga, Spain (2022). Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
  11. Tragedy

    Rana Plaza

    The 2013 factory collapse in Bangladesh that exposed the hidden supply chains of American brands.

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    Rescue workers search the wreckage of Rana Plaza in Savar, Bangladesh, three days after the eight-story garment-factory building collapsed on April 24, 2013.
    Sharat Chowdhury, "2013 Savar building collapse," April 27, 2013. Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.5.

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