Biographies are an important aspect of history. Understanding an individual's past and personal history will help lend perspective to historical events, and in some way give meaning to that person's actions.

Here we will examine those players who through political, legal, judical, authoritative or literary means had a profound impact on the Eastland before, during and after the disaster. Another portion of this web site is dedicated to passenger biographies.

Some well-known names involved in the aftermath of the Eastland were:

Clarence Darrow, who represented Joseph Erickson, Chief Engineer of the Eastland. Mr. Darrow became infamous for his defense of 24-year-old John T. Scopes at the Scopes-Monkey trial.

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis ruled on the Federal bench in Chicago during the first critical months following the disaster. Judge Landis later became the first commissoner of baseball, banning the eight players acquitted in the Black Sox Scandal for life.

Anton Cermak led a Czech Relief Fund for Eastland victims, later becoming Mayor of Chicago. Mayor Cermak was later killed by a bullet intended for president-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Senator Robert M. La Follette, who forged the La Follette Seaman's Act of 1915 that set the stage for disaster.

Carl Sandburg, famous writer, wrote numerous stories and poems from experiences in early Chicago and Illinois. Mr. Sandburg wrote a thought provoking poem about the Eastland.