Later Years > Cornell
President John F. Kennedy
Invitation to the Inauguration of President Kennedy
Washington, January 1961
Frances Perkins Papers, Box 107
Gift of Susanna Perkins Coggeshall, 1970
Frances Perkins
“Washington speech” on making exists for public buildings safer
Autograph manuscript, Washington, ca. 20 May 1963
Frances Perkins Papers, Box 133
Having spent her entire life in public service and continuing to be motivated by remembrance of the Triangle Shirtwaist fire, Perkins argued here for comprehensive fire safety laws rather than piecemeal legislation. Many fire safety measures that she mentions here have become law, including use of sprinkler systems, metal doors that close automatically, panic bars (here she speaks of a “panic bolt”), and mandating that occupied areas have at least two fire proof enclosed stairways for exiting.
Gift of Susanna Perkins Coggeshall, 1970
Christopher N. Brieseth
“The Frances Perkins I Knew”
Worcester, Mass.: Franklin D. Roosevelt American
Heritage Center Museum, n.d.
Christopher N. Brieseth wrote this essay in 1966, the year following the death of Frances Perkins. He was one of the members of Cornell’s Telluride House who invited Perkins to live with them for what would be the last five years of her life. His gracious essay, remembering many incidents during that time, has been published on the web: