Venetian gondolas on the Illinois River: water analysis and the cultivation of progressivism in the river cities, 1865–1910

In the late nineteenth century, the city of Chicago built a Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC) to carry the city’s wastewater downstream while allowing ships to travel freely between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. The project drew a wide range of responses downstream. While sanitarians warned that the CSSC would be a conduit for epidemics, city boosters in Joliet, Illinois envisioned tourists floating in Venetian gondolas on the Illinois River. Other Illinois River cities shared this sanguine view of the CSSC. Historians traditionally associate progressivism with national, state and urban settings. This paper argues that Illinois public health leaders successfully cultivated progressivism in cities along the Illinois River as an integral part of their efforts to solve regional water supply, wastewater and transportation problems. These cities readily adopted the progressives’ faith in scientific expertise: as they weighed waterway development against potential health threats from Chicago’s effluent, these cities welcomed the counsel of scientific experts from the Illinois State Board of Health (ISBH) and area universities. This essay is structured around three critical junctures when Illinois Rivers cities partnered with scientific experts on large-scale water analysis projects to assess the Illinois River system: the ISBH studies led by John Rauch (1865–1879); John Harper Long (1885–1889); and Long and Arthur William Palmer (1895–1902). In addition to supporting ISBH initiatives, downstream cities secured state funding for water analysis and expansion of local water systems from the Illinois legislature, evidence of their faith that scientific expertise would protect their cities’ health and commerce.