Learn about clean water and the Great Lakes Jan. 9
The Nineteenth Century Charitable Association continues its Monday Enrichment Series with "Our Great Lakes and Clean Water" on Monday, Jan. 9.
The program will be 1:15 to 2:15 p.m. via Zoom. (Reservations for the in-person event are full).
The Great Lakes are the largest surface fresh water system in the world and serve as drinking water for about 40 million people. The Lakes and the communities that depend on them are at risk from pollution, invasive species, crumbling water infrastructure, and climate change.
Joel Brammeier of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, which leads federal, state, and local action to protect and restore the lakes and clean water for people and wildlife across the region, will provide an overview of the Lakes and the risks they face and will share ideas for getting involved in their protection.
For more information, or to register for the webinar link, visit our website at www.nineteenthcentury.org. It is free; a voluntary donation from nonmembers is appreciated.
The free weekly programs continue at 1:15 p.m. at The Nineteenth Century Club, 178 Forest Ave. in Oak Park. A voluntary suggested donation of $15 at the door for nonmembers is appreciated. There will be no lunch before the program, but there will be a tea table after the program. For information, contact the office at (708) 386-2729 or info@nineteenthcentury.org.
• On Jan. 16, the program will be "Abandonment Issues: Rust on the Prairie." Closed warehouses, shutdown factories, and empty homes are the haunts photographed by Jerry Olejniczak, an urbex (urban exploration) photographer. Drawn to abandoned buildings since childhood, Olejniczak documents and celebrates these places. His slideshow will be accompanied by stories, histories, and commentary on the Art of Urbex Photographyon.
• On Jan. 23, it will be "Organized Crime in Chicago During Prohibition." Author and historian John Binder discusses organized crime in Chicago during Prohibition - from the decades before 1920 to the repeal of the Dry Law in 1933.
He will focus on Chicago's bootlegging gangs and examine how the Capone gang gained control of essentially all organized crime in the area by the end of Prohibition.
• On Jan. 30, it will be "Edith: The Rogue Rockefeller McCormick." Meet Edith Rockefeller McCormick, brought to life by historical interpreter Ellie Carlson and biographer Andrea Friederici Ross. Edith was an unusual woman: fiercely intellectual, unapologetically opinionated, and often prickly. But without her, we may not have Brookfield Zoo, Chicago opera, James Joyce's Ulysses, a cure for scarlet fever, and the popularity of Jungian psychoanalysis. Carlson will walk off the page as Edith to join Ross in a discussion of her book and the extraordinary life it portrays.