 Throughout the 1940s, Guthrie recorded hundreds of discs for Moses Asch, the founder of Folkways Records.One was “1913 Massacre”.According to Pete Seeger, Guthrie was inspired to write the song after reading about the Italian Hall disaster in "We Are Many" (1940), the autobiography of Ella Reeve Bloor, also known as Mother Bloor, a labor activist whose granddaughter was married to Hollywood actor and activist Will Geer who performed with Guthrie in the 1930s.