Exhibition: “A Living Room for Bronzeville”

Six vitrines filled with carefully selected objects—ranging from postcards and records to toy railcars and View-Masters—reveal the history of the Illinois Institute of Technology community from when it first opened its Main Building in 1893 to the present. These vitrines form the core of “A Living Room for Bronzeville.” Eschewing more conventional “documentary” photography in favor of popular objects and publications, these vitrines reveal the deep ties that developed over time between IIT (formerly Armour Institute of Technology) and Chicago neighborhoods Bronzeville and the “Back of the Yards” (site of the former Union Stockyards).

Philanthropy and Place
Boulevards to Bronzeville
Campus and City
Classrooms and Curricula
Urban Renewal and Its Discontents
Urban Archaeology