Eastland Disaster Memorial

Memorial to the 848 victims of the 1915 Eastland capsizing — Chicago's forgotten disaster, quietly marked along the Riverwalk.

On 24 July 1915, the excursion steamer Eastland capsized in the Chicago River while still moored at the dock, killing 848 people — mostly Western Electric workers and their families on a company outing. It remains the deadliest Great Lakes maritime disaster in history, yet it has long been overshadowed by the Titanic in public memory. The modest memorial on the Chicago Riverwalk restores that story with informational panels telling individual victims' stories. The riverside setting gives the spot a reflective, unhurried atmosphere well suited to quiet remembrance.