Program: "The Eastland Disaster, Legacy of the Titanic"

The GLCMS and John Rollins Books and Music of Kalamazoo hosted Dr. George W. Hilton, Professor Emeritus of Economics, UCLA, as a lecturer and colloquium presenter on the subjects of the "Eastland disaster" and passenger steamer service on the Great Lakes, respectively. In 1994, Hilton published The Eastland Disaster, Legacy of the Titanic that offered a detailed analysis of the capsizing of the passenger steamer Eastland at Chicago harbor in 1915 - the worst shipwreck disaster to occur in Great Lakes history. Hilton lectured on this subject to a packed house at South Haven on the evening of December 3rd. On the following day he offered a public colloquium at WMU's Political Science Library entitled, "Lake Michigan Passenger Steamers: Research Methodologies for Great Lakes Maritime Historians." The two-day program concluded with a book signing session by Hilton at the John Rollins store on the evening of the 4th.