Robert Forrant
Many know about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City in 1911, which cost 146 workers their lives. How many know about a similar occurrence on January 10, 1860, in Lawrence, Massachusetts, when nearly 100 workers were killed in the Pemberton textile mill collapse? The wealthy Bostonians involved in the mill’s construction got a free pass in the cover-up that followed. Instead, Charles H. Bigelow, chief engineer on the mill construction project, received singular blame for the horror at a coroner’s inquest. In the aftermath, efforts to reform worker health and safety in the Commonwealth failed. The deadly event even called into question whether we should be a nation of factories. Why did the mill fall? Could the families of the deceased workers sue the mill owners? Who engineered the cover-up? All will be revealed in this ‘true history detective’ session.