Russell Lewis

Russell Lewis is executive vice president and chief historian at the Chicago History Museum. A member of the Chicago Historical Society and the Chicago History Museum’s staff since 1982, Lewis has held numerous positions prior to his current appointment, including editor and director of publications, director of curatorial affairs, and acting president. Lewis is author of Historic Photos of Chicago (2006), and his writing has appeared in a wide range of publications, including The Public Historian, Science, Museum News, and Chicago History Magazine. He has been involved in the development of numerous exhibitions, including A House Divided: America in the Age of Lincoln and Chicago Goes to War, 1941–45, and the community history initiative, Neighborhoods: Keepers of Culture. He has led a number of digitization projects, including The Great Chicago Fire and the Web of Memory and Studs Terkel: Conversations with America, and the online version of The Chicago Encyclopedia. Lewis is an advisor to The HistoryMakers and Ford’s Theatre, and co-director of the Chicago History Museum’s Urban History Seminar. He served as the Center's panel chair in Heritage in 2010 and 2011, the 2014 panel chair in Exhibitions & Public Interpretation, and a LOI panelist in the same year. Most recently, he served as the 2018 panel chair in Exhibitions & Public Interpretation.