Visualizing Winter: Chicago 1940, 1937, 1915

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The three images you are about to see celebrate winter trailblazers, and twist off into fantastically specific stories. Follow one, two, or all three down rabbit holes; or just browse and know that animal selfies have existed for over a century. All three snapshots of Chicago’s visual history are from Explore Chicago Collections, a free data portal with contributions from institutions all around Chicago.

Tappan Gregory’s Camera Traps

Gray squirrel in Snow Covered Field by Tappan Gregory, 1940 December 1. Audiovisual Collection at the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, CC BY-NC-SA,
https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/naturemuseum/165/dz04f9c/

This is a gray squirrel in Northfield photographed by Tappan Gregory, a lawyer, American Bar Association president, Nuremberg trial chronicler, conservationist, mammalian curator — and amateur wildlife photographer. In the 1920s, Gregory refined a technique to capture selfies of animals, largely at night, using a motion-detector platform that an animal would step on, triggering a flash photograph. In addition to local squirrels, he reportedly lured lions in Mexico with catnip oil, but usually camera traps were placed in popular animal gathering spots.

Over 400 glass negatives of his work are housed at the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, including diagrams of his camera traps. Such were his accomplishments that Gregory’s Red Wolf (Canis rufus gregoryi) is named after him.

Maude Bennot’s Planetarium

Maude Bennot with holiday decorations near Dedicatory Plaque, December 22, 1937. Adler Planetarium Historic Photographs, CC BY-SA, https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/adlerplanetarium/159/3r0r272/

Our next story is still about science, but with more space. Aviator and planetarian Maude Bennot worked at the Adler Planetarium from its opening in 1929 as the assistant director under Philip Fox. After Fox left to direct the Museum of Science and Industry, Bennot was the only person qualified and became acting director of the planetarium in 1937.

I like this picture of her best, taken the year she was appointed acting director and at the very top of her field. She gave monthly lectures, planned exhibits, answered questions from patrons, and generally did her best to encourage astronomical learning while keeping a premier science institution running during a depression.

By 1944, due to both the depression budget cuts and World War II, she was the sole planetarium employee, serving the public while also teaching celestial navigation to naval midshipman. Bennot claimed she was inspired to study both aviation and astrology when she observed an eclipse while flying. She went on to publish many scientific papers, and her work at the Adler set up the institution as we know it.

Unfortunately, it seems that the Park District was not thrilled about employing the first female director of a major science museum, and they replaced her abruptly in 1945. After an unsuccessful suit to get either compensation or her assistant director position back, she seems to have completely disappeared from the field of astronomy.

Elsie Schuenemann's Christmas Ship

[Elsie Schuenemann standing near the wheel of the Christmas Ship, near the Clark Street Bridge on the Chicago River], 1915 December 6.
Chicago Daily News negatives collection, Chicago History Museum, no known copyright, https://explore.chicagocollections.org/image/chicagohistory/71/2f7k26r/

Our last story starts with sadness, but ends in joy. This image of 23-year-old Elsie Schuenemann piloting the “Christmas Ship” is certainly staged, but represented a real event. Schuenemann’s father, Captain Herman Schuenemann, was known as Captain Santa since he transported Christmas trees from northern Wisconsin and Michigan down to Chicago on his ship, the Rouse Simmons. Tragically, in November 1912, his ship, crew, and trees all went down in a storm near Glencoe, Illinois. Elsie, along with her mother Barbara and her sisters Hazel and Pearl, however, continued the tradition, although by the 1920s the trees arrived by rail and then the family ceremoniously captained the boat to its traditional place under the Clark Street Bridge. The Christmas Ship sails again today, carrying on the Schuenemann’s tradition of giving away trees to families in need.

Gretchen Neidhardt

Gretchen Neidhardt is a librarian, archivist and mundane/material history enthusiast with an unhealthy interest in cookbooks, food history, and mystery novels. She works in the research collections at the Chicago History Museum and Intuit: the Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art and spends a lot of time working with Chicago Collections, particularly digital exhibits. She can be found on Twitter as @geriaticgretch.

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