Save the Date – September 24, 2026 Neil Harris on Some Women Binders in Paris: The Deco Years

September Program

During the 1920s a remarkable group of women binders, many with modernist aspirations, emerged in Paris. One or two are well known; others remain obscure. This talk will focus upon several of the most talented and productive among them, relying on images to document their achievements.

Neil Harris taught at the University of Chicago from 1969 to 2008, retiring as Preston and Sterling Morton Professor Emeritus in History and Art History. In addition to more than 100 published essays and articles his books include The Artist in American Society; Humbug: The Art of P. T. Barnum; Cultural Excursions; The Chicagoan: A Lost Magazine of the Jazz Age; and Capital Culture: J. Carter Brown, The National Gallery of Art, and the Reinvention of the Museum Experience. His research interests focus on the history of museums and collecting, the built landscape, international expositions, and the decorative arts. Harris has served as a member and chair of the Smithsonian Council, a trustee of the Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, the Newberry Library, the Terra Foundation on the Arts, the National Museum of American History, and co-chaired the Visiting Committee to the J. Paul Getty Museum. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and recipient of the Joseph Henry Medal from the Smithsonian Institution.