Enloe anchored her speech in a remarkable historical connection. Connecticut College was formally chartered in April 1911—just two weeks after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911, which killed 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, when managers locked the ninth-floor doors because they assumed workers were thieves. She noted that the shirtwaist blouse those workers were sewing had become a symbol of modernity for women—and that the college's own first faculty photograph showed at least four women wearing shirtwaists. From this century-old tragedy, Enloe drew a direct line to the present. She had checked the labels on her own clothes that morning: made by workers in Canada, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, and Honduras. She challenged the graduates to do the same and to recognize their connection to garment workers in China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Cambodia. The first action of genuine connection, she argued, is curiosity—an unwillingness to remain ignorant about the conditions under which the everyday objects in our lives are produced.