Exploring the Archives: Chicago History Museum

Rebekah Coffman is a historian, preservationist, and curator currently serving as curator of religion and community history at the Chicago History Museum where she leads the Chicago Sacred initiative. Her interdisciplinary work is at the intersection of religious identity, the built environment, and sustainability through place-based, community-centered approaches. Since 2019, she has led the Sacred Shift Project, an international survey of urban religious buildings adapted by diasporic communities. She also lectures in Heritage Studies at American Islamic College. Rebekah holds a BA in Art History and Religion, summa cum laude from Hamline University and an MA in Historical and Sustainable Architecture from NYU London.

Elena Gonzales is Curator of Civic Engagement & Social Justice at the Chicago History Museum and the author of Exhibitions for Social Justice from Routledge’s Museum Meanings Series (2019). Gonzales is a lifelong resident of Cook County and grew up in a bicultural Mexican and Polish American home. Gonzales received her doctorate in American Studies and Masters in Public Humanities from Brown University in 2015 and 2010 respectively. During her doctoral studies, Gonzales specialized in Chicago History, Cultural Crossings, Visual Culture, and Exhibitions for Social Justice. She has curated exhibitions since 2006 and has taught curatorial studies since 2010.

Lucy Hereford is a librarian and archivist currently serving as a the Lilly Endowment project archivist for at the Chicago History Museum. She is assessing CHM’s architectural collections and discovery tools with the goal of making the materials more accessible to the public. As an avid bike commuter, her appreciation for Chicago’s architecture grew from daily immersion amongst its buildings. Lucy holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Washington and a master’s degree in library and information science from Dominican University. Most recently, she was working as a reference librarian at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, connecting curators and the public to its varied collection of published and archival materials.