Harriet Bart drawing installation at Babcock Galleries in New York City

One of the most horrifying accidents in U.S. labor history occurred a century ago in New York City when 146 garment workers — mostly young immigrant women — died in a spectacular fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Trapped on the top three floors of a 10 story building, many leapt to their deaths as smoke and flames engulfed their sweatshop workrooms on March 25, 1911. Hundreds of horrified spectators gathered on the streets below as firemen struggled to quell the fire with ladders and hoses that couldn't reach beyond the sixth floor.

Minneapolis artist Harriet Bart has remembered the dead in 160 drawings that she made using smoke or flame. The drawings are on view with other work by Bart in "Drawn in Smoke: Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Centenary," at Babcock Galleries, 724 5th Av., New York through Feb. 18. 212-767-1852 or www.babcockgalleries.com

Descendants of survivors and a granddaughter of one of the factory owners have contacted the gallery or have come to see the exhibit. The drawings are vaporous and mostly abstract, but "once you start looking, you pick out knees and legs and arms, so it's a little eerie and has a gravitas that's quite unexpected," said gallery owner John Driscoll.

The workers' ghastly fate gave impetus to the international labor union movement, and the building in which they died is now a National Historic Landmark.