Fissures in the Archive: Behind the Curtain of the Eastland Disaster

Some histories don’t fracture because records vanished; they fracture because we stopped asking questions. In this episode, we look at the Eastland Disaster through a different lens — not just what happened in 1915, but how its story has been curated, simplified, and sometimes commercialized, and how we can repair and restore it with evidence. (www.flowertheriver.com)

I share what two years of deep research (and new academic work) revealed: there’s no agreed standard for who qualifies as an Eastland victim, and no peer-reviewed, source-cited list — even though a mid-1990s tally has often been treated as final.

We walk through four patterns shaping public understanding: “empty frames” where names exist without biographies; vanishing attribution that severs data from sources; forgotten lives hiding in plain sight across court files, newspapers, and community databases; and the numbers game that turned a best-guess death toll into marketing copy.

Along the way, we spotlight crowdsourced heroes—Find a Grave volunteers, family historians, and independent sleuths—bloggers and podcasters—whose careful work often surpasses certain institutional sites, precisely because they cite, correct, and keep looking.

This is also a story about ethics and memory. We talk about why provenance matters, how to handle uncertain data without erasing it, and what it means to protect human stories from becoming slogans. From locating omitted individuals like Thomas Marren (excluded from the initial tally of victims) to resurfacing accounts tied to future Admiral Hyman Rickover, the method is consistent: follow the evidence, show your work, and leave a trail others can test. I also share progress on restoring the defunct Eastland Memorial Society website from the Wayback Machine, turning a lost archive into a living resource for researchers, descendants, and the simply curious. If you care about accurate history, communal stewardship, and honoring the people behind the numbers, this conversation offers tools and a path forward.
“Elevation” by Itai Argaman (Artlist)