These are my imaginings, as little is known for certain about Beckie Kessler except her parents’ names on the death certificate, and her burial site which you can view on Find a Grave. In an example of “yellow journalism” Miriam Finn Scott, a writer for The Outlook, social and political weekly of the time, seems to have appropriated Beckie Kessler’s name to a long piece called “Factory Girl’s Danger” just one month after the fire. While “a black marriage canopy and bowed young man with streaming eyes following the coffin” is likely fictional, one can believe that Beckie did have dreams and hopes of a happy future ahead with a husband and children. All the hopes and dreams of 146 women, girls and men were dashed that horrible day.

Justice is a long road, and progress is slow. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire led to safety standards legislation and the growth of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (now part of UNITE HERE union, with a membership much smaller than at its peak of 450,000 in 1969). It took another 50 years for OSHA to become a federal agency. While much of garment manufacturing moved away from the U.S. to China and Southeast Asia, the protection of unions did not go with it. 

In 2012 a fire at a Bangladeshi garment factory killed 112 people and injured many more.On Beckie Kessler’s banner I added a forget-me-not and a butterfly. Together they meant to me that we should never forget the tragedies that happen when powerful, greedy factory owners, politicians and leaders care more, much more, about their pocketbooks than the people who make their fortunes possible.