2017 ANNUAL REPORT JULY 2016–JUNE 2017 2017 ANNUAL REPORT TABLE OF CONTENTS 3 Board of Trustees 4 Chair’s Message 5 President’s Message 6 Auxiliary Groups 8 Year in Review 19 Making History Awards 21 Honor Roll of Donors 28 Donors to the Collection 30 Treasurer’s Report 32 Volunteers 33 Staff 1601 North Clark Street Chicago, Illinois 60614 chicagohistory.org 312.642.4600 The Chicago History Museum gratefully acknowledges the support of the Chicago Park District on behalf of the people of Chicago. From top: Hot Dog Fest attendees in their finest garb, August 2016. Making Mainbocher: The First American Couturier, opened in November 2016. ChicaGO24 participants embark on a trolley tour, May 2017. 2 ChicagoHistoryMuseum BOARD OF TRUSTEES Officers Trustees Life Trustees David D. Hiller James L. Alexander Lerone Bennett, Jr. Chair Gregory J. Besio David P. Bolger James L. Alexander Matthew J. Blakely Laurence O. Booth Chairman Emeritus Denise R. Cade Stanley J. Calderon Walter C. Carlson Walter C. Carlson John W. Croghan Paul Carlisle Alison Campbell de Frise First Vice Chair Warren K. Chapman Michael H. Ebner Daniel S. Jaffee Keith L. Crandell Sallie L. Gaines Second Vice Chair Patrick F. Daly Sharon Gist Gilliam Tobin E. Hopkins Patrick W. Dolan Barbara A. Hamel Treasurer James P. Duff M. Hill Hammock Falona Joy Paul H. Dykstra Susan S. Higinbotham Secretary T. Bondurant French Dennis H. Holtschneider Gary T. Johnson Timothy J. Gilfoyle Henry W. Howell, Jr. Edgar D. and Deborah R. Jannotta Gregory L. Goldner Philip W. Hummer President Mary Lou Gorno Richard M. Jaffee Russell L. Lewis Brad Henderson Edgar D. Jannotta Executive Vice President David D. Hiller Barbara Levy Kipper and Chief Historian Tobin E. Hopkins W. Paul Krauss Cheryl L. Hyman Fred A. Krehbiel Daniel S. Jaffee Joseph H. Levy, Jr. Honorary Trustee Gary T. Johnson Josephine Louis The Honorable Rahm Emanuel Falona Joy R. Eden Martin Mayor, City of Chicago Ronald G. Kaminski Robert Meers Randye A. Kogan Josephine Baskin Minow Honorary Life Trustee Judith H. Konen Timothy P. Moen The Honorable Richard M. Daley Michael J. Kupetis Robert J. Moore Robert C. Lee Potter Palmer Douglas Levy John W. Rowe Russell L. Lewis Jesse H. Ruiz Ralph G. Moore Gordon I. Segal Michael A. Nemeroff Paul L. Snyder Kelly Noll M. Bridget Reidy Trustees Emeritus Elizabeth Richter Bradford L. Ballast Larry C. Selander Paul J. Carbone, Jr. Joseph Seliga Jonathan Fanton Jeff Semenchuk Thomas M. Goldstein Kristin Noelle Smith Cynthia Greenleaf Samuel J. Tinaglia, Sr. David A. Gupta Mark D. Trembacki Jean Haider Ali Velshi Nena Ivon Gail D. Ward Erica C. Meyer Jeffrey W. Yingling Eboo Patel Nancy K. Robinson April T. Schink Margaret Snorf Sarah D. Sprowl Noren Ungaretti This list reflects the Board Joan Werhane on June 30, 2017. 3 2016–17 Annual Report CHAIR’S MESSAGE AS THIS ANNUAL REPORT GOES TO PRESS, THE CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM IS LAUNCHING THE PUBLIC PHASE OF OUR COMPREHENSIVE CAMPAIGN, “THIS IS CHICAGO.” This Is Chicago is a landmark $50 million fundraising The names of members of the Lincoln Honor Roll Society campaign that will extend the Chicago History Museum’s are inscribed in a special leather-bound book that lists role as a community hub for generations to come. this type of gift going back to the Museum’s founding Together, we can put the pulse of Chicago at everyone’s years when President Abraham Lincoln was our first fingertips in a bolder, more accessible way than ever honorary member. Another name inscribed is that of before by advancing three priorities that all Chicagoans Henry D. Gilpin, whose bequest made in 1860 helped can call their own: the Museum to rebuild after the devastating 1871 Great Chicago Fire, when all of the collections were • Our Home: We can make the Museum an accessible, lost and the Museum’s building burned to the ground. exciting destination for everyone. This campaign will The remarkable story of Gilpin’s bequest reminds us enhance exhibitions and beautify the park around the that all gifts to the Lincoln Honor Roll Society move Museum to become a more welcoming and visible the institution forward. Other honored members of the destination. Society range from 19th-century civic leader Bertha Honoré Palmer and 20th-century African American • Our Communities: We can empower our communities publisher Claude Barnett to our own era’s Studs Terkel. by building our Chicago Learning Collaborative and our Chicago Metro History Fair program, using our city’s During the preliminary “silent” phase of our Campaign, stories to engage, teach, and inspire young people in fifty individuals joined the Lincoln Honor Roll Society— their classrooms and in their neighborhoods. a truly remarkable and humbling number. Now we ask members of the community to join them. The Lincoln • Our Future: We can preserve and share the past Honor Roll is open to anyone who wants to declare a that defines our city today—and that will shape its planned giving intention to secure the Museum’s future. future tomorrow. This campaign will upgrade and The signing will be held in a personal ceremony at the modernize our collection storage and use advanced Museum’s historic desk that was shared by Lincoln’s two digital techniques to make our treasured collections White House secretaries, John Hay and John G. Nicolay. accessible now and in the future. With the help of the community, another 150 years from The Lincoln Honor Roll Society plays a special role in the now, the Chicago History Museum will still be able to say, Campaign. This planned giving society was established “This Is Chicago.” to recognize those special individuals and families who have chosen to support the Chicago History Museum’s mission and to provide a foundation for this work to continue for generations to come. Planned gifts to endow the activities, programs, collections, exhibitions, and professional positions of the Museum are a vital part of the resources the institution needs. Earnings from the funds currently endowed are utilized every year to ensure that the Museum does the best work possible in its service to the community. David D. Hiller Chairman 4 ChicagoHistoryMuseum PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ELEVEN YEARS AGO, WE REOPENED OUR DOORS AS THE CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM AND REINVENTED THE WAY WE SERVE CHICAGO. OURS IS THE PLACE THAT BRINGS TOGETHER THE PEOPLE, EVENTS, AND IDENTITIES THAT MAKE CHICAGO, CHICAGO. My heart is filled with gratitude for the help we have a solution, and if the metrics say it works, then scale it. received over the years from so many who believe in our That’s what we are doing with our plan to use Chicago mission and the future of our great city. Now, during our stories to help teach reading, writing, and critical- This Is Chicago campaign, we are taking this reinvention thinking skills in the Chicago Public Schools. to a new level. Inspired by a challenge grant from The The approach worked during our pilot project with Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust and The Elizabeth DePaul University, and now we seek the funding to Morse Genius Charitable Trust, the Museum’s Trustees sustain and expand this program. and the members of our Costume Council and our Guild already have stepped up. We have renovated Museum • From the Kellogg School’s marketing guru Philip spaces such as the Robert R. McCormick Theater Kotler, we have borrowed “Every business is a service and the Guild Gallery and developed a new space, business.” Our Culture of Service Team finds new the Jim and Kay Mabie Gallery, home of the Chicago ways to put that proposition to work throughout our Authored exhibition. Throughout the Museum, the Morse organization in dealing with the public. Trusts’ “Exhibition Innovation Fund” is providing new multisensory technologies and perspectives to update The truest words in our Visioning Report from 2007 are Museum exhibitions. “We can’t do it alone.” At the Chicago History Museum, we grab ideas and best practices wherever we find them. Inspired by the early successes of our campaign, we now We reach out to universities and community organizations call on the community at large to support This Is Chicago when we need collaborations to bring these ideas to life. with funding for new projects, increases in annual giving, And when the time comes for us to step up in service to and membership in the Lincoln Honor Roll Society. Chicago, we reach out to you for help. That’s what our This Is Chicago campaign is all about. I am proud to serve Meanwhile, as we go about our work, there are new tools as President during these exciting times. in our toolkit, tools borrowed from the world around us. • From start-ups, we have borrowed the slogan “do it fast.” Because we believe today’s Chicago needs quick responses from its own local museum, we are scrambling to open three new special exhibitions on a very fast schedule. All have a community theme: Remembering Dr. King: 1929–1968, Race: Are We So Different? and Amplified: Chicago Blues. • We have borrowed the social entrepreneurship formula Gary T. Johnson for projects: Identify a social problem, experiment with Edgar D. and Deborah R. Jannotta President 5 2016–17 Annual Report THE COSTUME COUNCIL OF THE CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM Executive Committee The Costume Council opened its season with the inaugural Chicago Officers 2016–17 Men’s Fashion Awards, the first event of its type in the Council’s history. Kristin Noelle Smith, President One hundred guests were in attendance at BOGA Menswear, and Annette Findling, celebrity stylist George Kotsiopoulos served as the judge. 1st Vice President – Programs Heather Farley Ingram, The opening gala for Making Mainbocher: The First American Couturier 2nd Vice President – Membership welcomed more than two hundred guests.