Episode Details

Send us Fan Mail

A single newspaper review from 1938 turned this story on its head.
Digging through Chronicling America, I stumbled upon a mention of Cornelia Otis Skinner's one-woman show—a performance inspired by Margaret Ayer Barnes's novel Edna, His Wife—and it included a "sensational scene" set on the Eastland. That brief reference shatters the myth that Chicago's 1915 disaster simply faded from memory. It never vanished. It lingered in novels, on stage, in film, and in poems. 

I retrace that rediscovery, then plunge into vivid passages from Barnes's novel: morning chatter, a ringing phone, a name called out. The Chicago River teeming with people. A stranger thrusting a peach crate into a woman's arms. In the armory—now a morgue—the coroner pleading with a restless crowd to let grieving families pass. Headlines scrambling for blame. Two sisters selecting gloves, pews, and pallbearers.

These scenes press close because they ring true: the sound of shock, the way loss rearranges a room, a city returning to work beneath the glare of searchlights.

I also pause to ask a larger question: what other stories have been hiding in plain sight? Barnes won a Pulitzer, yet her Eastland chapter is rarely—if ever—mentioned today. Skinner crafted a powerhouse performance from that book, but her credit faded into the background. This story was waiting to be found. 

Why wasn't it?

Here, genealogy, local lore, and literature intertwine—revealing how culture preserves memory even when research falls short. 

Resources:

• “Miss Cornelia Otis Skinner Skillfully Presents ‘Edna His Wife,’” The Washington Daily News (Washington, D.C.), February 22, 1938, accessed via Chronicling America, Library of Congress.
• Edna His Wife, Broadway production, December 7, 1937–January 1938, Little Theatre, New York, Internet Broadway Database (IBDB).
• Margaret Ayer Barnes, Edna, His Wife: An American Idyll (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1935), accessed via Internet Archive.

• Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/
• Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/
• YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTube
• Medium: Natalie Zett – Medium
• The opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opus
• Other music. Artlist