Participant Info

First Name
Cate
Last Name
LiaBraaten
Affiliation
Loyola University Chicago
Website URL
cateliabraaten.com
Keywords
Twentieth-century US history, late 19th century US history, public history, museum education, environmental history, parks, playgrounds, and public spaces, history of education, children's history, the Great Depression, World's Fairs, women's suffrage, temperance movement.
Additional Contact Information

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

I am a PhD Candidate at Loyola University Chicago in the joint Public History and United States History program. Before beginning my PhD I received my Bachelor of Arts degree from Cornell College in History and a Master’s Degree in Historical Administration from Eastern Illinois University.

My dissertation project focuses on the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress Exposition, and I’m researching how this World’s Fair remembered the past and imagined the future so that we can better understand how Depression-Era Americans saw their place in history.

My other research includes the history of play, playgrounds, and recreation, and I’m interested in educational history and the history of parks and public spaces.

I am an active public historian, working on women’s history, especially suffrage and temperance history, at the Frances Willard House Museum in Evanston, Illinois. I’ve held previous public history positions at the Chicago History Museum, the Frank Lloyd Wright Trust, and Historic Wagner Farm, among others.

Recent Publications
  • LiaBraaten, Cate. “Willard House and the 19th Amendment Centennial.” Frances Willard House Museum & Archives. July 28, 2020. Accessed August 4, 2020. https://franceswillardhouse.org/willard-house-and-the-19th-amendment-centennial/.
  • LiaBraaten, Cate. “Animal Crossing, Museums, and Space for Contemplation.” The Lakefront Historian. May 21, 2020. Accessed July 21, 2020. https://lakefronthistorian.com/2020/05/21/animal-crossing-museums-and-space-for-contemplation/.
  • LiaBraaten, Cate. “The Silent Steed So Swift and Blithesome.” Frances Willard House Museum & Archives. May 16, 2019. Accessed October 7, 2019. https://franceswillardhouse.org/the-silent-steed-so-swift-and-blithesome/.
  • LiaBraaten, Cate. Review of Farmers Helping Farmers: The Rise of the Farm and Home Bureaus, 1914-1935. By Nancy K. Berlage. The Journal of The Illinois State Historical Society, Summer 2017.
  • LiaBraaten, Cate. Review of Bloomer Girls: Women Baseball Pioneers, by Debra A. Shattuck. The Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, Fall/Winter, 2016.
  • LiaBraaten, Cate. “Making Historic Country Schools Modern Community Spaces,” Guest Editorial, Midwest Open Air Museum Coordinating Council Magazine, 2015.
  • LiaBraaten, Cate. “From “grim Blot upon the Landscape” to Superior School: Progressivism’s Effect on the Space and Architecture of One Room Schools.” The Journal of Illinois History 17 (2014): 119-34.
Media Coverage
Country Focus
Expertise by Geography
United States
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Children & Youth, Environment, Local & Regional, Material Culture, Museums, Public History, Urban History, Women