PBS
Pbs American Experience: Triangle Fire
Film and special features on the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire of 1911. Features include a timeline of the deadliest workplace accidents, biographies of famous women of the time, and primary resources of the coverage of the fire. For...
Other
Spartacus Educational: British History: Hannah Brown Child Labour
During the 1830's the House of Commons conducted interviews of factory workers who began their employment as children. This is an interview with Hannah Brown investigating abuse in the factory where she worked.
Other
Spartacus Educational: British History: Child Labour: Joseph Hebergam
Im the early 1830's the House of Commons conducted interviews of those factory workers who began their employment as children. This is an interview with Joseph Hebergam inquiring about the hours and environment he worked in.
Digital History
Digital History: Labor Protests
A sure sign that manufacturing was moving from the home to the factory was the organization of skilled workers to protest wage reductions and working conditions. Read about the tension between these skilled workers and their employers as...
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: "Lowell Mill Girls" by Harriet Robinson
Archived news article. A personal account of young female cotton mill workers in Massachusetts during the mid-1800's.
Internet History Sourcebooks Project
Fordham University: Modern History Sourcebook: Industrial Manchester 1844
This site from the Modern History Sourcebook of Fordham University provides an exerpt from "The Condition of the Working-Class in England in 1844". Personal account of what life was like for textile mill workers in Manchester.
Other
University at Albany: Recruitment of Female Operatives in the 1840's
Tells the story of Lowell Mill factory and the "capturing" of poor white females to "work" in the factories. From "Voice of Industry," January 2, 1846.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: Labor Battles in the Gilded Age
As the United States became a major industrial power, conflict between workers and factory owners intensified. Read about the Homestead Strike and the Pullman Strike, two of the most famous labor battles in American history.
Country Studies US
Country Studies: The Struggles of Labor
This site discusses how for much of the latter half of the 1800s, the life of the common laborer was horrendous. Working in a unsanitary factory, for at least 10 hours a day, making far less than needed to survive, the struggles of the...
NPR: National Public Radio
Npr: Weekend All Things Considered: Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
A short piece on the death of the last living survivor of the fire, Rose Freedman. She died at the age of 107. You can hear a recorded talk between a reporter and Freedman's granddaughter.
Digital History
Digital History: The Disruption of the Artisan System of Labor
A look at how goods were produced in the early 1800s in home-based businesses, only to be supplanted by factories with unskilled workers by mid-century.
Imperial War Museums
Imperial War Museums: Women in Wartime
Educational resource that focuses on British women's experiences of war in the twentieth century.
PBS
Pbs Teachers: Track the Path of Coffee From Farm to Store Shelf
Consider how individuals making economic decisions connect countries to one another around the world. Discuss what happens and how farmers and factory workers in third-world countries are affected when production exceeds consumption.
Library of Congress
Loc: Learning Page: Labor in America
A rich collection of resources, including primary sources, student activities, and lesson plans, to support study of Americans at work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Text Sets: The Gilded Age
This is a collection of 8 Grade-Leveled texts (5-12) on the topic "The Gilded Age." Mark Twain named 1870-1900 "The Gilded Age" in hopes of capturing how the era of serious social problems was veiled by a thin layer of gold. While robber...
Other
History Buff: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
For as short as this synopsis is, it does give a good overview of the story of the fire and the aftermath. Provides text on resulting labor laws.
A&E Television
History.com: How the Horrific Tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Led to Workplace Safety Laws
The March 25, 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was one of the deadliest workplace catastrophes in U.S. history, claiming the lives of 146 workers, most of them women immigrants in their teens and twenties. The fire was so horrific it...
Can Teach
Can Teach: Novel and Picture Book Ideas (Lesson Plans)
Novels and picture books are great ways to teach across the curriculum. This site lists about 75 novels and picture books around which CanTeach has constructed lesson ideas and plans. All grade levels indicated.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: The Industrial Age in America
In this lesson plan from EDSITEment, students will discuss the significance of the labor movement, the industrialists involved and the attitude of the American people toward working conditions in the United States. Contains links to many...
Victorian Web
Brown University: Victorian Web: Chadwick's Report on Sanitary Conditions
This site from the Victorian Web provides a summary of Edwin Chadwick's report on the sanitary conditions of the working class in 19th century England. Links are also provided for additional information on this subject.
Library of Congress
Loc: The Empire That Was Russia, Photographic Record Recreated
The digital revival of the glass plate images of the Russian Empire on the eve of World War I by photographer Sergei Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorskii. Very interesting from both historical and technological points of view.
National Humanities Center
National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Pullman Strike, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912
An article that describes the Utopian factory town George Pullman built for his workers, a statement of the grievances that led them to strike against the company, the Pullman Company's response, and an editorial speculating on the...
Library of Congress
Loc: National Child Labor Committee Collection
Newspaper clipping from 1911 illustrating the dangers of children working in factories while the Congresswas investigating the concerns voiced by families of workers.
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