[Postcards from the S.S. Eastland Disaster]

“Actual photographs of the ill-fated Eastland.”

On the morning of July 24th, 1915, several thousand employees of Western Electric Company gathered on the banks of the Chicago River for a fun company excursion across Lake Michigan. The passenger steamer S.S. Eastland quickly became overcrowded with the throngs of people. Curious spectators moving to the sides caused the top-heavy ship to list dangerously in the water, eventually capsizing and trapping those on the lower decks. Though only half the vessel was submerged in about 20 feet of water, nearly 850 people were crushed or drowned, one of the worst maritime disasters in U.S. history.

This collection of commemorative postcards capturing the horror of the Eastland Disaster was published shortly after the event by Max Stein and Max Rigot of Chicago. The black and white images show the ship, the wreck, rescue operations, and the resulting corpses. The accompanying text erroneously claims that over 1,000 people drowned.

Further reading at the Bell System Memorial site