I never knew much about my grandmother, Annie Sprinsock, until I found her listed as a survivor of the Triangle Fire in the Kheel Center’s Archive. My cousin Steven discovered a NY Times article about 17-year-old Annie’s “heroic deed”: saving her friend Katie Weiner by holding her above her head in the packed final elevator down. Katie was the last known girl to escape the inferno. This story captured my imagination, and reignited my own social activism : I want young women making clothes in Asia to be as safe in their workplace as if they worked in the US.
[Read the full story in the Resources below.]

Tags: Elevator, Family, Fire March 25 1911, Survivor