Overview

• The Lady Elgin steamship sank in Lake Michigan on Sept. 8, 1860, after colliding with a schooner during a storm that claimed over 300 lives.
• Divers located Herbert Ingram’s 16-carat gold pocket watch on the wreck in 1992, and the lake’s cold, low-oxygen depths preserved it in remarkably good condition.
• Archaeologist Valerie van Heest acquired the watch in 2024 and donated it to the Boston Guildhall Museum ahead of its planned exhibit on Ingram.
• On May 24, 2025, local officials and residents gathered for a formal handover and private tribute as the watch was returned to Ingram’s hometown.
• Herbert Ingram, a pioneering journalist and member of Parliament who died in the disaster, is commemorated by a statue in Boston, Lincolnshire, where the timepiece is now on public view.