Water Works
"Water Works: An Aquatic History of Milwaukee" is a production of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Department of History and the Milwaukee County Historical Society. In its first season, the show explored the the effects of the 1918 influenza pandemic and the current COVID-19 pandemic on Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In this second season, the show tells the aquatic history of Milwaukee.
Water Works
Shipwrecks
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Milwaukee County Historical Society
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Season 2
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Episode 4
The Lady Elgin often has an outsized presence in Milwaukee's maritime history. The boat's fateful voyage in 1860 took place in the midst of several local and national conflicts, while the ship's wreckage remains a destination for divers to this day. On this episode of Water Works we parse fact from fiction in the sinking of the Lady Elgin, and ask what shipwrecks can tell us about Milwaukee history more broadly.
For more information about the show, including photographs and documents from the era, check out https://milwaukeehistory.net/podcast/.