The Triangle Factory Fire as a subject for visual argument

My next few posts will be dedicated to a study of the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire of 1911 and the ways in which it accommodates itself as a case study for the viability of visual argument, as well as the dangers it poses for erroneous application of principles of visual rhetoric. In my "Links" section on the front page of my blog I have posted a Web gallery sponsored by Cornell University that is dedicated to a study of the fire.
The Triangle Factory Fire has lent itself over the years as a stimulant to argument over work conditions both in America and abroad. The work conditions that led to the fire and to the deaths of 146 people might be described today as "sweat shop" conditions, and this is one of the reasons that its (tragic) legacy continues to live on today in sociological studies, visual analysis, and literature. Workers in the factory made women's blouses and were subjected to generally claustrophobic work conditions. The floors on which they worked were crowded and dimly lit, according to Jason Zasky: "[...] the co-owners of the Triangle Waist Company, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, viewed their employees as nothing more than disposable parts in a giant profit-making machine. If workers griped, their concerns were likely ignored" ("Fire Trap"). Blanck and Harris's business was threatened several times by a union labor strike, but according to Zasky, a number of workers counted themselves fortunate in their work situation, because the ceilings were high, the windows large, and the technology cutting-edge, among other factors. The factory, however, was infamous for a number of minor fires that were easily put out.
One day, however, one of the fires quickly sparked out of control, leading to panic: "The workers had always been able to contain small fires and this one—most likely started by someone dropping a match or a lit cigarette into the bin—probably looked no different. But this one was different, and fueled by highly flammable cotton fabric strips, it quickly raged out of control" ("Fire Trap"). As mentioned earlier, 146 people died trying to evacuate the building, and this led to serious discourse on work conditions.
In his article titled, "The Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire of 1911: Social Change, Industrial Accidents, and the Evolution of Common-Sense Causality," Arthur F. McEvoy writes,"In a symbolically powerful way, the Triangle fire wrote out the power of employers to extract wealth from their workers on the bodies of the victims themselves, in public" (630). It is the functionality of this social event as a "symbol" that I am particularly interested in. As I intend to explore in later posts, the symbolism of visuals, as well as the rhetorical evidence that these symbolic visuals evoke, should provide a powerful avenue for the accessibility of argument in a way that mere text cannot produce in such an immediate way. The photographs that both expose the poor work conditions and provoke an emotionally jolting resonance for the audience of an argument have proven especially effective for the continuing of discourse on the subject.

Works Cited
McEvoy, Arthur F. "The Triangle Shirt Waist Factory Fire of 1911: Social Change, Industrial Accidents, and the Evolution of Common-Sense Causality." Law & Social Inquiry 20.2 (1995). JSTOR. 20 November 2007. .
Zasky, Jason. "Fire Trap: The Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire." Failure Magazine. 20 November 2007. http://www.failuremag.com/arch_history_triangle_fire.html.