Currently traveling with the juried HerStory exhibition.
Frances Perkins was the first woman member of the cabinet, under Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and wrote most of the New Deal and many of the labor laws that came out of that administration. This quilt depicts a defining moment in Frances’s life: witnessing the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. Many young women working in the factory died–they were not able to leave the floor where the fire broke out because the doors had been locked. Some jumped to their deaths. If you look closely, you can see some shadowy figures falling.
Cotton. Machine quilted and appliqué.
24 x 30 inches.
Copyright 2016 Betsy True
Personal collection