More from the Chicago History Museum

I'll continue with yesterday's article.

Another interesting display in the exhibit is the 4000 pound "WAUBANSEE STONE" which is a six foot chunk of granite with a human face carved at one end. Popular lore has it that soldiers constructing Fort Dearborn (on the future site of Chicago) in 1803, found it.

In the 1860s, a prominent Chicago family put it in their front yard, and then gave it to the museum in 1914, where it was cut down in size and used as a drinking fountain for 18 years.

There are many stories as to its origins. Some have a soldier in the fort carving it in honor of the Potawatomi Indians. Other stories have it coming from the Phoenicians or Vikings.

The SERPENT SKIN from the Garden of Eden is about one foot square and came from an unnamed church or monastery in 19th century France. Charles Gunther, one of Chicago's biggest history collectors, found it on a trip to France in the 1880s and displayed it in the second-floor museum above his State Street candy store.

A printed label in French says that "Adam took a stake and killed the snake the day after the temptation." A slit in the snakeskin is supposed to represent the wound.

The WOODEN GUN supposedly belonged to Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger who supposedly carved it in his Lake County, Indiana jail cell and used it in his 1934 escape from it. Drugstore owner Charles Walgreen, Jr, donated it to the museum. His father, who was a big gun collector, had bought it, and there was a signed statement from jail guard Ernest Blink attesting that it was the one used in the escape.

Two other museums also have wooden guns purported to be the one used in the escape, however.

The Lincoln STOVEPIPE HAT is another story. Lincoln scholars claim that only three hats survive that can be verified as belonging to him. The one at the museum is not one of them. The museum's hat comes with the claim that it is the one he wore en route to his 1861 inauguration.

Lincoln left Springfield to go to Washington on a very meandering route, including a long stopover in New York City. There was a big fear that someone might try to assassinate him. Supposedly, while there, a hat maker had made one identical to the one that Lincoln had worn for years, and arranged a swap with Lincoln. The label on the hat does show that it came from the haberdasher in Springfield where Lincoln always got his clothing

Other Lincoln objects in the exhibit are a pair of eyeglasses, a swatch of cloth from Lincoln's suit coat he was wearing when he got assassinated, and the bloody sheet upon which he died.

Also, there are questions about some of George Washington's things, including a colorful waistcoat, his ceremonial Masonic apron, and a ceramic mantle clock.

There are some supposed bricks from Christopher Columbus's home where he lived in the New World, some relics of the Great Chicago Fire, and a little glass chest containing tea that supposedly came from the Boston Tea Party.

Articles from the exhibit that curators determine to be fake will not be thrown away because they are so old and are linked with Chicago's history.

This really makes you want to go and spend $12 for adults and free for children under the age of 12.

Careful, This COULD get you Interested in History. --RoadDog