#maritimemonday

[hagleyvault]

We’re visiting the beasties of the sea this #MaritimeMonday, just in case America’s beaches didn’t seem scary enough already. These illustrations are sourced from “Wonders of the Deep”, an 1895 pamphlet from the New York City patent medicine firm of Scott and Bowne, founded by Samuel W. Bowne (1842–1910) and Alfred B. Scott (1946–1908), manufacturers of Scott's Emulsion cod liver oil.

The pamphlet, which details a great variety of "slimy things did crawl with legs upon the slimy sea” off American coastlines was illustrated by Daniel Carter Beard (1850-1941), an American illustrator, author, and social reformer who founded the Sons of Daniel Boone in 1905, which merged with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) after Beard joined that organization in 1910 as a national Scout commissioner.

This pamphlet is part of the Hagley Library’s collection of Carter Litchfield Collection on the History of Fatty Materials (Accession 2413). You can view it in full, along with a selection of other materials from this and our collection of Carter Litchfield photographs and ephemera on the history of fatty materials (Accession 2007.227), online now by visiting their page in our Digital Archive. Just click here!

[houstonmaritime-blog]

Follow this link to learn more about the Eastland and to access film footage of its sinking.

This Day in Maritime History

On July 24, 1915, the SS Eastland sunk in the Chicago River, resulting in over 800 tragic deaths. 

The Eastland had been chartered by the Western Electric company to convey thousands of its Chicago-area employees across Lake Michigan for a yearly company picnic. The summer celebration provided great excitement for a workforce of chiefly lower-class immigrants who worked long, six-day workweeks.

Unfortunately, this excitement turned to horror as so many passengers were drowned or crushed in the Eastland. The ship had been plagued by ballast problems and other various stability issues for years prior to the accident.

The sinking had was a tragedy for the city of Chicago and was widely reported across the country at the time. Today, the Eastland’s 1915 sinking is virtually unknown, while the demise of the Titanic, which occurred in 1912, remains iconic.

Have you heard of the Eastland disaster? Why do you think it is so little-known?

[hagleyvault]

We’re cruising into the new work week this #MaritimeMonday with this dramatic photographic print of a ship in dry dock. The photograph is undated and unidentified, but it may be an image of the USS Deyo (DD 989), a Spruance-class destroyer Navy ship that began construction on October 14, 1977 by Ingalls Shipbuilding in Pascagoula, Mississippi, and was launched on January 20, 1979.

This image is part of the Hagley Library’s collection of Chamber of Commerce of the United States photographs and audiovisual materials, Series II. Nation’s Business photographs (Accession 1993.230.II). To view more items from this collection online, visit its page in our Digital Archive by clicking here.