Individual Scholar Page

Personal Info

Photo

About Me

Dr. Rachel Boyle is a co-founder of Omnia History, a public history collaborative dedicated to using the past to promote social change in the present. As a historian of Chicago and the Midwest, Dr. Boyle studies the movement of people in space, from women navigating the streets of turn-of-the-century Chicago to groups migrating across the Midwest over time. Dr. Boyle also manages constituent relationship management systems for cultural organizations and explores how to apply cooperative principles to history work.

Dr. Boyle brings over ten years of experience in the field of public history, having worked with cultural organizations across the Midwest including the Minnesota Historical Society, the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society, and the Newberry Library. She holds her PhD in U.S. and Public History from Loyola University Chicago.

Recent Publications

“Envisioning Shared Authority as an Alternative Economic Model for Cultural Organizations,” in Museums and Revenue, edited by Samantha Chmelik (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019), forthcoming.

“She Shot Him Dead: The Criminalization of Women and the Struggle over Social Order in Chicago, 1871-1919,” PhD dissertation, Loyola University Chicago, 2017.

Author, “Types and Beauties: Evaluating and Exoticizing Women on the Midway Plaisance at the 1893 Columbian Exposition.” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society: Vol. 17, No. 2 (Spring 2015).

DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS

Curator, “Migration and the Midwest,” Digital Collection for the Classroom, Newberry Library, Chicago, IL (January 2019).

Curator, “Midwest Connections: Stories of Midwest Migration,” Newberry Library, Chicago, IL (December 2018). https://publications.newberry.org/digital/midwest-connections

Curator, “Mapping the Midwest,” Newberry Library, Chicago, IL (December 2018). http://publications.newberry.org/storymap/witm/

Curator, “Place of Protest: Chicago’s Legacy of Dissent, Declaration, and Disruption,” Chicago Collections Consortium, Chicago, IL (September 2018). https://exhibits.chicagocollections.org/place-of-protest

Curator, “Practical Work: Chicago Woman’s Club Reformers, Criminal Women, and Delinquent Children, 1876-1920,” Women and Leadership Archives, Loyola University Chicago, IL (July 2013). http://specialcollections.luc.edu/exhibits/show/cwcpracticalwork

REVIEWS

Author, Review of Finding a New Midwestern History edited by Jon K. Lauck, Gleaves Whitney, and Joseph Hogan, Nebraska History (forthcoming).

Author, Review of Black Public History in Chicago: Civil Rights Activism from World War II Into the Cold War by Ian Rocksborough-Smith, Indiana Magazine of History (forthcoming).

Author, Review of WW1 America. Minnesota Historical Society. Public Historian, Vol. 40, No. 2 (May 2018).

Author, Review of The Chicago Trunk Murder: Law and Justice at the Turn of the Century by Elizabeth Dale, Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society: Vol 105, No.1 (Spring 2012), Page 104-106.

BLOGS

Co-Founder and Contributor, Omnia History (April 2018-present). http://omniahistory.com

Co-Founder and Contributor, The Lakefront Historian (May 2012 – October 2015). http://lakefronthistorian.com/author/raaboyl/

Creator and Co-Editor, Public History Ryan Gosling, (November 2011 – May 2013). http://publichistorianryangosling.tumblr.com/

Media Coverage

Social Media

@Raboyl

Country Focus

United States

Expertise by Geography

United States

Expertise by Chronology

19th century, 20th century

Expertise by Topic

Capitalism, Economic History, Family, Gender, Museums, Public History, Race, Sexuality, Sexual Violence, Urban History, Women