(WBBM NEWSRADIO) – Chicago’s Eastland Disaster killed 844 people in 1915 when a passenger ship rolled over in the Chicago River, and now some of those lost lives are coming into sharper focus.
The Newberry Library has acquired the collection of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society.
The trove of letters, personal diaries and other items -- combined with the Newberry's existing archive -- gives more insight into the lives of those who died. Many of them were immigrants from northern and eastern Europe who worked at Western Electric here.
"A lot of the people on board were first generation, and so you find out the country they came from, what cemetery they're buried in, their occupation, their age, the names of their children, the names of their parents,” says Alison Hinderliter, curator of modern manuscripts and archives at the Newberry.
The newly acquired collection includes mourning cards -- memorials to some of the dead, often with a photograph. Other ephemera items are letters and excursion tickets from that day in July 108 years ago.
“These are one-of-a-kind items found in shoeboxes and attics,” Ted Wachholz, executive director of the Eastland Disaster Historical Society, said in a news release. “They’re documents and photos that haven’t been widely accessible until now.”
The Newberry Library plans to digitize the newly acquired material and make it available to researchers, officials said.
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