November 17, 2025
Meghan O'Toole
Rebecca Graff honored by Society of Architectural Historians
With decades of experience in urban archaeology, Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of Museum Studies Rebecca Graff has made a notable impact beyond her field. Her work was recently recognized with an award from the Society of Architectural Historians (SAH).
The annual gala, which recognizes the achievements of architectural advocates shaping the built environment and championing historic places, took place in Chicago on October 24.
Graff's dedication to urban archaeology has earned her national recognition. SAH honored the years of archaeological research Graff has put into the Charnley-Persky House, an important architectural landmark in Chicago designed by Louis Sullivan with assistance from his junior draftsman, Frank Lloyd Wright.
In the late 1800s, Astor Street in the Gold Cost neighborhood attracted wealthy residents who commissioned grand homes from prominent architects. The Charnley-Persky house is a significant historical example of this slice of Chicago’s history.
“Architecture is not my academic or disciplinary home,” Graff said, “so to be recognized by this group of scholars and preservation advocates beyond my discipline was special. The work I have done at the Charnley-Persky House was a continuation of work I started in 2008 that has seen me through grad school and different jobs all the way through my position at Lake Forest College.”
Graff began her archaeological excavation of the Charnley-Persky House in 2010 and 2015, which led to her conducting archaeological field schools for students at the site.
During the 2010 field school, over twenty undergraduate students from Chicago-area institutions, including Lake Forest College, worked for five weeks to uncover artifacts and features at the site. In 2015, a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Digital Humanities Foundation enabled Graff to direct excavations through Lake Forest College, where they were joined by ten students from Lake Forest College, Beloit College, St. Olaf College, Northeastern Illinois University, and Chicago's Lane Tech College Prep High School.
“Archaeological work is crucial to understanding the built environment,” Graff said. “The kind of archaeology I do is community based, and this is one of my communities. My work is interested in the built environment and preservation in Chicago, especially in terms of museums and how archaeology can intervene.”
The Charnley-Persky House features heavily in Graff's 2020 book, Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism During Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair, which explores the “White City” and Midway Plaisance of the 1893 Chicago Fair and the modern disposal practices seen at the Charnley-Persky House. Graff also curated the museum's first exhibit, which featured materials recovered during the Charnley-Persky House digs, in 2022.
The relationship Graff has built with the Charnley-Persky House has led to fruitful learning opportunities for students, including a burgeoning internship program. Graff's dedication to building a relationship with the Charnley-Persky House has fortified the bond between the museum and Lake Forest College.
Dr. Tara Natarajan, Krebs Provost and Dean of the Faculty, attended the event honoring Graff. She said this of Graff, which was read in the citation at the event: “Your archeological research to uncover Chicago's past and for making that research available and accessible to a broad audience is the hallmark of being an impactful researcher. You have involved our students from Lake Forest College over the years in your research and have been personally responsible for much of the archaeological work conducted at the Charnley-Persky House. As a teacher-scholar you have enriched Lake Forest College both academically and intellectually. Hearty congratulations on behalf of the entire college community.”
Sociology and anthropology major Peter Piper Huizenga ’28 describes Graff as a reliable mentor who encourages independent thought while also providing attentive feedback.
“I have loved working with Dr. Graff,” Huizenga said. “She is a very hands-on teacher. She isn't afraid to throw us into the thick of it, which is wonderful for my learning. She's also a very kind person.”
Huizenga, who is currently enrolled in Graff's practicum, was one of three students assisting Graff with a dig in Chicago this past summer.
Graff dedicated the award to the late Pauline Saliga, the mother of alumna Nadia Gronkowski ’14 and mother-in-law of Ivaylo Valchev ’14. Saliga, the former executive director of the Charnley-Persky House, invited Graff to conduct an excavation at the house after reading an article about Graff's work excavating the World's Fair site in 2008.
About Rebecca Graff
Rebecca S. Graff is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Lake Forest College (PhD and MA, University of Chicago; BA, University of California, Berkeley). As an historical archaeologist with research interests in the 19th- and 20th-century urban United States, she explores the relationship between temporality and modernity, memory and material culture, and contemporary heritage and nostalgic consumption through archaeological and archival research. Her book, Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism During Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair (2020), was based on an archaeological and archival project focusing on the ephemeral “White City” and Midway Plaisance of the 1893 Chicago Fair and the modern disposal practices seen at the Louis Sullivan-designed Charnley-Persky House. In Chicago, Graff has also excavated the Haymarket Martyrs’ Monument (2016), the Gray-Cloud House (2018), Mecca Flats (2018), Armour Mission and Armour Flats (2023), and the Edith Farnsworth House (2021, 2024). In 2019, she led excavations at the former site of the African Methodist Episcopal Church on the campus of Lake Forest College.
Graff’s work has been supported by the American Historical Association and the National Endowment for the Humanities (SHARP), the Karla Scherer Center for the Study of American Culture (University of Chicago), the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance. In 2013, she won the Kathleen Kirk Gilmore Dissertation Award from the Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA), presented to a recent graduate whose dissertation is considered to be an outstanding contribution to historical archaeology. At the University of Chicago, she taught undergraduate and graduate students as preceptor and postdoctoral instructor in the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences (MAPSS). She returned to Chicagoland in 2014 from a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Michigan Technological University’s Department of Social Sciences. In Chicago, Graff directed and co-directed archaeological undergraduate field schools for DePaul University, the University of Chicago, Michigan Technological University, and Lake Forest College. Her research has been published in Historical Archaeology, International Journal of Historical Archaeology, Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage, Current Anthropology, and in edited volumes from presses including Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press.