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Free online lectures: Explore a world of ideas

Funding provided by:
Mill Talks

In Pursuit of a Safer Industrial Workplace – Pemberton to the Present

In partnership with:
Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation
With support from: Lowell Institute
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Date and time
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
7:00pm - 8:00pm
In-person:
Registration is required
Location
Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation
154 Moody St
Waltham, Massachusetts 02453
In-person
Free
Get Tickets

What can a 19th-century mill disaster teach us about workplace safety today?

Join Professor Robert Forrant (UMass Lowell) and Gabriel Porter (Safety and Health Specialist/Process Safety Management Coordinator OSHA Boston Regional Office) for a compelling discussion moderated by Charles River Museum’s Director of Education, Stephen Guerriero. Forrant will delve into the catastrophic Pemberton Mill collapse of 1860—an industrial tragedy that claimed 98 lives, revealed systemic failures, and left questions of accountability unresolved. Porter will explore how OSHA builds on lessons from such events to safeguard workers in today’s industries. Together, they’ll connect history to modern-day practices, offering insights into the ongoing fight for safer workplaces.

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Dr. Robert Forrant
Robert Forrant is Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. His most recent book, Where Are the Workers: Interpreting Labor and Working-Class History at Museums and Historic Sites, was published in 2022. In early 2024 he published “‘No Avenging Gibet’: The 1860 Pemberton Mill Collapse” in The New England Quarterly.
Gabriel Porter
Gabriel Porter is a New Hampshire based Safety and Health Specialist/Process Safety Management Coordinator with the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Boston Regional Office. A graduate of Northeastern University, he has close to 20 years' experience working in the field of workplace safety and compliance. Porter helps to communicate the role and history of OSHA as a regulatory agency tasked by Congress to ensure worker health and safety are maintained across a broad spectrum of industries and sites.
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