The Reversing Course: The Illinois River In 1900 and Today
June 6 @ 9:00 am - December 7 @ 5:00 pm
Free
The Illinois River enters the Mississippi River just north of St. Louis. In 1900, the City of Chicago reversed the Chicago River, constructing a canal that flushed all of that city’s untreated sewage into the Illinois River. The solution to one city’s problem—stench and waterborne disease—was solved by shifting the problems downstream to the ecology and economy of Illinois River Valley.
This exhibit compares the black-and-white Chicago Sanitary District photos from 1894 to 1928 with color photographs created by Watershed Cairns artists Libby Reuter and Joshua Rowan along the Illinois River from 2018 to 2022. Historic and contemporary maps pinpoint the locations of photos at eleven sites along the Illinois River. Labels between the paired images discuss some issues facing the river and its people in the 1900s and today.