Exhibit Timeline

1893 - The Women's Temperance Union commissioned the creation of a fountian for the Columbian Exposition as part its global campaign to encourage the creation of public water fountains as alternatives to saloons and liquor. The Fountain Girl provided refreshment for people and animals during the 1893 fair and afterwards downtown, until it mysteriously disappeared. A replica exists in Lincoln Park.

1900 - Completed in early January, the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal was the work of the Army Corps of Engineers to make it easier to access the Mississippi River from the Great Lakes--more famously it is known for Chicago's decision to send its waste down south rather than letting it pollute the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.

1911 - A private fountain was built on the Near North Side out of relics from the Great Chicago Fire (Oct 1871), symbolically putting out the flames for good.

1915 - Close to 850 people died on July 24, 1915 in the heart of the Loop (at Clark St. and the River) when the S.S. Eastland capsized due to overcrowding. Employees and their entire families were invited that Sunday for a company outing for the Hawthorne Works plant of Western Electric. Some say their ghosts still haunt the area.

1915 - The steering wheel from the S.S. Eastland that sunk while docked in the Chicago River, resulting in one of the largest casualties of any event in the city's history.

1928 - The Northern Trust Company advertises its ability to promote industrial commerce in Chicago and the region with a map of its harbor area. Chicago's position on the lake and river is central to its economic foundation.

1929 - To further ease the flow of commerce through its waterways, Chicago embarked on a project to straighten the river in the late 1920s. 

1930 - The John G. Shedd Aquarium opened on May 30, 1930.  It is an indoor public aquarium located on Lake Michigan in Chicago's downtown museum campus.

1950 - Recording artist, blues legend, and former sharecropper from Mississippi, Muddy Waters (a.k.a. Mikinley Morganfield) was one of the most notable figures of the Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Chicago. Legend has it he earned his nickname from the fact that he often played in the muddy creeks of the bayou, the same water Chicago was sending southward! 

1977 - The Chicago rock group the Styx released one of their most famous hits, "Come Sail Away" in 1977 with themes about how life on the water was liberating.