MAY 2014
Local maritime news, events and history from the Chicago Maritime Museum
the President’s Letter
Tom Kastle, Editor
Dear Members and Patrons,
It’s truly an exciting time to be a part of the Chicago Maritime Museum.
We are established in our new Bridgeport location, which provides us with real opportunities
to become a first-class museum. Our new facility, on the shores of historic Bubbly Creek, will
encourage visitors to explore the historical relevance of Chicago’s waterways.
Much of the infrastructure work at our Bridgeport space is complete; a few details on the outside, such as a boardwalk along the river, are still in progress by the building management.
The CMM collection of rare artifacts, artwork and books is being stowed, curated and documented. This is an ongoing process, but with this move, it has new urgency. An exhibit design is being
contemplated and we are working with potential contractors.
Our intention is to open as a museum with regular operating hours in the first quarter of 2015.
We have tremendous needs as a consequence, particularly exhibit design donations, volunteers
to help plan and build the exhibit, museum docents and operating funds to run the museum.
As we engage in this new venture, we want to keep you informed of our progress, give you the
chance to volunteer and make you feel a part of the process. To this end, our operating board
minutes are regularly posted on the CMM website, www.chicagomaritimemuseum.org and we
have initiated this e-newsletter, On the Move, featuring updates on the progress of our new facility, along with special interest stories and local maritime events.
Thank you for all of your support and we hope you’ll continue to join our quest to explore and
share Chicago’s rich maritime heritage.
Sincerely,
Jerry Thomas,
President, Chicago Maritime Museum
THE CHICAGO MARITIME MUSEUM
at THE BRIDGEPORT ARTS CENTER
Occupying the sixth floor of the Helix Building for many
years, the Chicago Maritime Society’s Resource Center
grew into a budding Chicago Maritime Museum, opened to
the public on a limited basis. This nautical institution had
outgrown its old home at Racine and Jackson
and has now established
a dynamic footprint at the
innovative Bridgeport Art
Center, bridgeportart.com,
on 35th Street and the South
Branch of the Chicago River.
The Bridgeport Art Center
is located in the former Spiegel Catalog Warehouse and is the
home of many artists, designers, and events that offer a vibrant,
creative atmosphere.
Though the Chicago Maritime Museum’s new facility will be
slightly larger than that of its former home, its new location
at the Bridgeport Art Center provides opportunities of shared gallery space for events and
permanent, temporary, and touring exhibits. There will be an option to establish a physical
relationship with the Chicago River, just a few feet out the door, via a boardwalk, dock, or even
a vessel.
In addition to maritime books, photographs, and artifacts, the museum’s model shop will be
housed in the new home behind a sliding door system that gives some degree of isolation
while maintaining visibility from the main gallery area. Model maker and artist, Glenn Braun,
says the new location is inspiring as well as convenient, as one only has to walk to the door of
the museum to see the Chicago River. The model shop will help preserve not only ship models
and artifacts, but the skills necessary to keep them alive.
The process of exhibit design has begun in earnest with meetings of museum board members
Dirk Lohan, Trigg Waller, and president, Jerry Thomas, with candidate designers including
Bob Weigland.
Volunteers are needed to help with the immense job of unpacking, labeling, shelving, and
cataloging the collection and organizing, cleaning, and, to some extent, restoring artifacts, as
well as the everyday work of maintaining the premises, planning and executing events, and
helping to promote the museum’s mission and activities.
ANNUAL MEETING
Chicago Maritime Museum’s annual meeting at the Chicago
Yacht Club, Belmont Station, on Tuesday, April 22nd, featured an
annual address by president, Jerry Thomas, a treasurer’s report
by Grant Crowley, and an illuminating discussion on the history of Chicago’s
river bridges by
author, Patrick McBriarty.
Patrick’s work
has resulted in
a documentary,
book, and dozens
of lectures on a
most fascinating and uniquely Chicago design
tradition. See a trailer and more at
www.chicagodrawbridges.com.
DES PLAINES RIVER MARATHON
We at On the Move will be doing a monthly look at an historic Chicago or Great Lakes
maritime event. May’s event is one founded right here in Chicago, by the late, great Ralph
Frese, canoe builder, blacksmith, historian, environmentalist and
Chicago Maritime Museum vice president. Ralph’s legacy includes:
our own museum canoe collection, multiple generations of paddlers who have gone on to become mariners, environmentalists and
historians, the Ralph Frese River Trail, the annual “Happy Canoe Year”
Paddle on the North Branch of the Chicago River, and the Des Plaines
River Marathon - the second oldest continual canoe race in the United States in which Ralph founded in 1958. After building dozens of
canoes with local Boy Scouts, he decided a race would be just the
thing to encourage the use of these new watercraft to promote
friendly competition, test both canoe and paddler, and raise awareness
of the natural beauty of a threatened waterway. Ralph wrote...
“One day, I had an idea. Another way all these canoes could be used by the
Boy Scouts was a bit of fun competition, a canoe race. The Des Plaines River
was close by, and was relatively protected by the Cook County Forest Preserve
system. However, one of the prettiest stretches of the river, in Lake County, there
was no such protection. Perhaps starting the canoe race in Lake County could
educate people on the value of this resource before developers ruined it all?”
Today, the race is still going strong thanks to the solid volunteer base of the Des Plaines
River Association. The entire course is 18 1/2 miles long, but with an offering of various class
options, most every paddler can participate. Information and registration is available at
www.canoemarathon.com and 847-604-2445.
Did You Know?
More than twice as many people, 844, perished in the Eastland Disaster of
1915 as did in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, where the death toll may have
been as high as 300. A passenger ship used for tours, the SS Eastland rolled
over while tied to the south dock of the Chicago River between Clark and
LaSalle streets. The ship had been chartered to take employees from the
Western Electric Company to a picnic in Michigan City, Indiana. Most of the
employees were trapped below deck and drowned.
As we approach the 100 anniversary next year, July 24, 2015, of the largest
shipwreck on the Great Lakes, the Chicago Maritime Museum will provide
perspective and insight on the Eastland Disaster.
AN ICY YEAR FOR THE LAKES
After a truly long winter, at last Lake Michigan is looking like a… lake, once again, but, to our
neighbors just a bit north of Chicago, ice breaking is scheduled to continue into May!
www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/04/coast_guard_wraps_up_ice-break.html
CHICAGO MARITIME FESTIVAL
The 12th Annual Chicago Maritime Festival, held February 22, 2014, served almost
3,000 people with activities at the Chicago History Museum, Old Town School of Folk
Music, Corinthian Yacht Club, and a number of outreach locations. A variety of
programs served the general public as well as students, seniors, and people with
disabilities. There were 39 lectures, workshops, demonstrations, exhibits, and
concerts presented by over 45 individuals and organizations from the Chicago area,
around the country, and across the ocean. The festival is a program made possible
by a partnership between the Chicago Maritime Museum, Chicago History Museum,
and Common Times, a folk arts network. The fest, together with the Chicago
Corinthian Yacht Club, will host a Nautical Auction to benefit the festival and the
CCYC Junior Fleet, on Sunday, May 4th, at the Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club, Montrose Harbor.
Info at 773-965-2268 or [email protected].
CHICAGO MARITIME MUSEUM MONTHLY E-NEWSLETTER
We hope you enjoyed our new e-newsletter. If you have a maritime story or event, please
forward it to: [email protected].