McRAH Program Faculty

Program Faculty Member Henry C. Binford (A.B., Ph.D., American History, Harvard University; M.S., British History, University of Sussex), is Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University. He is the author of The First Suburbs: Residential Communities on the Boston Periphery 1815-1860 (University of Chicago Press, 1985). His courses include "U.S. History since 1865," "The Development of the Modern American City," "Technology and Culture in America," and "The Problem of Poverty in America." He is collaborating with Professor Smith (see below) in creating a digital media resource for courses in American Studies,

Project Consultant Faith D. Clark (B.S., M.S., in Education, Northern Illinois University),a veteran elementary and middle school teacher, retired from Waukegan Public Schools in June, 2001. During her tenure Ms.Clark was actively involved in professional development, peer coaching, and union leadership serving the school district and the Waukegan community in various elected or appointed positions. Among other honors Ms. Clark was named 2001 Secondary Teacher of the Year in the Waukegan Public Schools' Taking Pride in Teaching Program. In addition to consulting on McRAH she works with the Accelerated Schools Project (University of Connecticut) and presents for the Lake County Educational Service Center.

Faith Clark, recently retired Waukegan public school teacher, who is McRAH's field representative.

Program Faculty Member Steve Rosswurm (B.A., University of Michigan; M.A., Ph.D. Northern Illinois University) is Professor of History at Lake Forest College. The winner of three teaching awards, The William L. Dunn Award for Outstanding Teaching and Scholarly Promise (1984), The Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award (1990), and the Charles A. Behling Award for Distinguished Service and Commitment to Cultural Diversity (1994), he offers courses in American, Mexican and gender history. His book, Arms, Country and Class: The Philadelphia Militia and the "Lower Sort" during the American Revolution (Rutgers University Press, 1987), was awarded Honorable Mention in the Fraunces Tavern Museum book Competition in 1988. He chaired the Education Committee for the History / Lecture Series Committee for the Sesquicentennial Celebration of the Archdiocese of Chicago, and edited a collection of essays, documents, and suggested learning activities for grades pre-K-12.

Steve Rosswurm, professor of history at Lake Forest College and McRAH faculty member.

Program Faculty Member Carl Smith (A.B., Brown University; Ph.D. Yale University) is the Franklyn Bliss Snyder Professor of English and American Studies and Professor of History at Northwestern University. His publications include Chicago and the American Literary Imagination 1880-1920 (University of Chicago Press, 1984), and Urban Disorder and the Shape of Belief: The Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Bomb, and the Model Town of Pullman (University of Chicago Press, 1995), winner of the Urban History Association's prize for Best Book in North American Urban History. Smith makes extensive use of technology in his research and teaching, and is the author- curator of The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory, and The Dramas of Haymarket. His American Literature and cultural history classes emphasize an interdisciplinary approach.

He received Northwestern's Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award (1980) and was named Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence in 1994.

Program Faculty Member Catherine Sardo Weidner (B.A. College of William and Mary; M.A., Ph.D., Northwestern University) is Lecturer in History at Lake Forest College. Weidner regularly teaches courses in African-American history, women's history, history of education, and urban history, and has developed a number of multimedia projects for her classes, including "Civil War Photographs: The American Memory Project," and "Dust Bowl Odyssey." She won the Faculty Award of the Butler University Black Student Union in 1991.

Program Faculty Member Arthur Zilversmit (B.A., Cornell University; A.M., Harvard University; Ph.D. University of California at Berkeley), Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of History at Lake Forest College, has also served as consultant for the Illinois State Board of Education, Learning Standards and Assessment in History. Among his well-known works are Changing Schools: Progressive Education Theory and Practice, 1930-1960 (University of Chicago Press, 1993), and The First Emancipation: The Abolition of Slavery in the North (University of Chicago Press, 1967). Zilversmit has regularly taught "American Intellectual History," "African-American History," "History of American Education," the survey of American history, and "History Theory and Methods." He has received many honors for his research and teaching, including the Lake Forest College Board of Trustees Outstanding Teaching

Arthur Zilversmit, Distinguished Service Professor of History Emeritus and Senior Academic Advisor to McRAH.

Award, and the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Outstanding Faculty Award. Zilversmit has been involved in teacher education throughout his distinguished career, including receiving two grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities (1989 and 1991) for Summer Seminars in "American History / American Autobiography."

The Chicago Historical Society offers a range of professional development programs for teacher audiences. Participation in these programs has increased from serving approximately 800 teachers in the 1997-98 school year to reaching over 1700 teachers this past school year. In addition to its educational programs, the Chicago Historical Society also offers a range of curriculum resources to enhance both classroom instruction and museum visits. Both printed and on-line materials provide grade-appropriate information and activities to the Chicago Historical Society collections and exhibitions. "Just the Arti-facts" on the Chicago Historical Society website, e.g., highlights

McRAH Summer '02 Institute visits the Chicago Historical Society. Left to right: Lonnie G. Bunch III, president of the Chicago Historical Society, with John Franco and Maryfran Troha.

selected artifacts from the collections relating to themes such as westward expansion, slavery, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and political conventions. All of these resources are designed to fulfill Illinois State Learning Goals. Sessions held at the Chicago Historical Society draw on all of these resources to illustrate innovative techniques in teaching history through primary sources. Chicago Historical Society Faculty from History Programs, Historical Documentation, and Research Access facilitate these sessions to provide instruction in content and pedagogy. Sessions include a variety of approaches and activities: gallery walk-through, hands-on activities, presentations and demonstrations, and behind-the-scenes tours, all designed to provide participants with a fresh perspective on teaching history and a broader understanding of the resources available for them at the Chicago Historical Society. Materials include background information to provide historical context; questions to generate classroom discussion; and worksheets that develop students' skills in analyzing and interpreting primary sources. Reproductions of photographs, maps, documents, and letters are incorporated throughout these materials to provide teachers with access to primary sources. A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln, A Teacher's Handbook of Activities and Information received the James Harvey Robinson Prize from the American Historical Association (December 1992).

McRAH Project Administration

McRAH Evaluators

McRAH Program Faculty