Tag Archives: Fall 2010

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Death on Lake Michigan: The Lady Elgin Tragedy

Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 September 8, 2010 marked the 150th anniversary of the sinking of the Lady Elgin. The worst tragedy ever seen on the Great Lakes, this event looms large in Winnetka and Lake Michigan history. Just before midnight on September 7, 1860, a palatial sidewheel steamboat named the Lady Elgin left […]

Who Was Lady Elgin?

Gazette Article by Duff Peterson Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 Lady Elgin and Winnetka are forever linked in history. The Lady Elgin had a checkered history long before she came to grief off Winnetka. In August 1854, she hit a rock off Milwaukee and limped into Manitowoc, only to sink at the dock.  In […]

From the Curator: Fall 2010

Gazette Column by Katie Macica, Curator Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 Curatorial Nitty Gritty Thanks to the hard work of our intrepid summer interns, Caroline Whitcomb and Jack Grasso, the majority of the Burnham collection is finally processed!  When WHS acquired the Schmidt-Burnham Log House from the Burnham family in 2003, we also obtained […]

What Brought the Lady Elgin to Chicago?

Gazette Column by Susan Whitcomb Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 Often ignored in the retelling of the Lady Elgin disaster is the reason that over 300 people from Milwaukee’s Irish Third Ward came to Chicago on September 7, 1860. Although some accounts claim the travelers were going to see the Lincoln-Douglas debates, this is […]

WHS and the Lady Elgin

WHS and the Lady Elgin

Gazette Column by Helen Weaver Appeared in the Gazette: Fall 2010 We’ve all heard of “six degrees of separation” but how about three degrees of connection? Hanging over the fireplace in the Evanich Room at 411 Linden is a painting with links to two our our past exhibits Palette of Our Past: Artists in Winnetka […]