Panel
Shaping the City: Civic Leadership in Gilded Age Chicago
Saturday, June 6 3:00-4:00 pm Register Now Free; Registration Recommended
In participation with the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, this panel of museum leaders will highlight the civic-minded men and women who, in the years after the Great Fire of 1871, helped shape modern Chicago. From collecting and preserving artworks and rare books to contributing to the city’s architectural development and supporting immigrant communities and lobbying for greater public services, these Gilded Age Chicagoans laid the foundation for today’s vibrant landscape of civic organizations, arts clubs, libraries, and museums.
This event is free and open to the public, with donations gratefully accepted in support of the Museum’s ongoing cultural programming and community days.
About the Speakers
Rosemary Feurer (Moderator), Professor of History, Northern Illinois University, focuses on the political economy of social conflict from the nineteenth century to the present. As an interdisciplinary public historian, She has produced dozens of exhibits, documentaries, walking and driving tours, markers, mapping and other digital history projects, art, theater, and place-based projects. The Mother Jones Heritage Project includes placing a sculpture of Mother Jones at Chicago’s Historic Water Tower, as part of an effort to re-envision historical monuments and narratives. She is currently working on several projects and books, including The Illinois Mine Wars, 1860-1940, which reinterprets the epic conflicts in mining communities, a new biography of Mother Jones, and a place-based Join arts and culture leaders from across the city as they highlight the civic-minded men and women who, in the years after the Great Fire of 1871, helped shape modern Chicago.exploration titled The Mother Jones Road Tour of Illinois Labor History.
Will Hansen is the Roger and Julie Baskes Vice President for Collections and Library Services, and Curator of Americana at the Newberry Library. He holds a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; a Nebraska native, his bachelor’s degree in English is from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He began his career in libraries at the Newberry in 2003 as a Circulation Assistant and then, in 2004, as the library’s Reference Assistant. From 2007 to May 2014, he was Assistant Curator of Collections at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and he returned to the Newberry in June 2014 as Director of Reader Services and Curator of Americana.
Ross Stanton Jordan is a curator interested in the confluence of politics, history, and visual culture. He is the curator at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago’s dynamic monument to democracy. At the museum and independently, Ross has produced dozens of exhibitions and over one hundred public programs that connect the social justice issues of the past to the present-day demands for social equity via collaborations with artists, scholars, and community-based organizations. Ross has held curatorial fellowships at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Independent Curators International, and the American Association of Museums. In 2022, Newcity Magazine named Ross one of the top 50 Chicago arts administrators working to make a more equitable and sustainable arts world. In 2024, The
Chicago Tribune named Ross, along with his colleagues at Hull-House, Chicagoans of the Year in Museums. Jordan holds a studio arts degree from Connecticut College and dual master’s degrees in art history and arts administration and policy from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Ward Miller has led Preservation Chicago as its Executive Director since 2013. Previously, he was a founding board member and served as Board President of Preservation Chicago. From 2003 to 2011, he was the Executive Director of the Richard Nickel Committee where he co-authored the highly acclaimed 2010 publication of The Complete Architecture of Adler &Sullivan and prepared the archives of the architectural photographer and preservationist Richard Nickel for the Ryerson and Burnham Library Collections
at The Art Institute of Chicago. Specializing in the restoration, remodeling, and reuse of historic buildings, Miller worked for 20 years as a project architect and project manager at Vinci-Hamp Architects in Chicago.
Lisa M. Key is
the Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum, a nationally recognized museum of art, architecture and design located steps from Chicago’s Magnificent Mile. As Executive Director, Key has provided transformative leadership for the Museum by completing the expansion of the Museum’s campus in reopening the Murphy Auditorium in 2024, nearly doubling the square footage of the Museum and expanding their programs and outreach. She has also worked at The Field Museum, The Art Institute of Chicago and the Department of Cultural Affairs and has taught arts administration widely. She is the co-chair of Enrich Chicago and is on the board of directors of the Magnificent Mile Association.