Dan Gifford on The Last Voyage of the Whaling Bark Progress

November Evening Program

Presented by the Caxton Club and the Union League Club of Chicago

Join us as the Union League Club of Chicago and the Caxton Club welcome Dan Gifford to spin his tale of the whaling bark Progress, a New Bedford, Massachusetts ship transformed into a whaling museum for Chicago’s 1893 Columbian Exposition. Dan sourced ULCC archival materials to detail this fascinating story of how Progress was an effort organized and funded by leading citizens in the New Bedford whaling community and ULCC members in Chicago. Traversing waterways across North America, the whaleship enthralled crowds from Montreal to Racine, but her ultimate fate was to be a failed sideshow of marine curiosities and a metaphor for a dying industry out of step with Gilded Age America.  

This event will start with a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. The program will begin at 6:00 p.m. followed by Q & A. The price is $24 per person with a cash-only bar. Credit cards and debit cards will not be accepted. Reservations are required by November 5.

Registering for this program will allow you the opportunity to pre-purchase copies of  The Last Voyage of the Whaling Bark Progress for $29. Books are available for pre-purchase only and may be signed by the author at the event. Those who pre-purchase books but do not attend the event will receive the book and a signed bookplate.

The ULCC is following the Illinois and Chicago mask mandate: masks must be worn indoors unless actively eating and drinking.