Department of History | The University of Chicago

My interests center on the evolution of American cultural life, high, popular, and mass, and more particularly on the formation and sustenance of its supporting institutions. I have special concerns with the history of museums and libraries, the social history of art and design, the development of world fairs, the character of art collecting, the nature of metropolitan life, the design of consumption and shopping experiences, and the relationship between people and the built landscape. Thus my courses have ranged from subjects like the History of the American Landscape and the Development of Tourism to American Graphic Design and Commercial Culture and the Modern Uses of Spectacle. Current work includes a study of J. Carter Brown and the National Gallery of Art, and an examination of American newspaper buildings.

Publications

Chicago Apartments. A Century of Lakefront Luxury (2004)

"The Park in the Museum: The Making of an Icon," Seurat and the Making of La Grande Jatte (2004)

"Art and the American Club: Chicago's Union League Club as Patron," Union League Club of Chicago Art Collection (2003)

"Acres of Diamonds. Toledo and the Pursuit of Reputation," Toledo Designs for a Modern America (2002)

"The Rise of the World Series," & "Communicating Baseball," Baseball As America (2002)

"The Life of the Party," Erika Doss, ed., Looking at Life Magazine (2001)

"Reluctant Alliance: American Art, American Religion," Alberta Arthurs, ed., Crossroads. Art and Religion in American Life (2001)

"Art and the Public Purse: The American Historical Experience," Proceedings of the Texas Philosophical Society (2000)

"The View From The City," Maureen Hart Newman, ed., Norman Rockwell. Pictures for the American People (1999)

Building Lives. Constructing Rites and Passages (Yale University Press, 1999)

"The Divided House of the American Art Museum," Daedalus (1999)

"Making Sense of America," Stephan Koja, ed., America. The New World in 19th Century American Painting (1999)

"Local Hero: J. C. M. Hanson and the Politics of Library Classification," Susan Ware, ed., Forgotten Heroes (1998)

"American Poster Collecting: A Fitful History," American Art (1998)

"Midwestern Medievalism: Three Chicago Collectors," Cultural Leadership in America (1997)

The Department of History

The University of Chicago

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Neil Harris

Preston & Sterling Morton Professor Emeritus of History and of Art History
Ph.D. Harvard University 1965