Lost 1957 postcard brings Virginia man to the Shedd Aquarium

What must’ve been a confounding disappointment for teenaged Scott McMurry 54 years ago has become a charming family flashback that netted the 71-year-old retired Justice Department historian a trip to the Shedd Aquarium this week. In 1957, McMurry’s parents visited Chicago where his mother penned a Shedd Aquarium postcard and mailed it off to her son back home in Georgia. After being lost in the mail, the postcard never arrived—until about three weeks ago. On April 18, the postcard bearing a 2-cent stamp mysteriously arrived at the South Daytona Beach home of a teacher who also lives on the 600 block of Clairmont—albeit in an entirely different state. McMurry was quickly tracked down after the teacher posted the postcard on Facebook.  

McMurry visited the Shedd for the first time today. The aquarium, United Airlines and Swissotel Chicago worked together to bring McMurry to Chicago where he was given a VIP tour that includes a few sights that his parents’ would’ve seen: namely, the Shedd’s original 1930s galleries and Granddad, an Australian lungfish who's been with the Shedd since 1933. McMurry told the Chicago Tribune the experience has been “like winning the lottery.”