In celebration of Alumni Weekend 2021, Chicago Studies is proud to collaborate with the office of Alumni Relations and Development and College Dean John W. Boyer (noted historian of the University and the author of The University of Chicago: A History) to offer a brief history of the people whose generosity built our institution...narrated building by building! Dean Boyer tells the stories of significant figures associated with thirteen locations on our beautiful Hyde Park campus. Who was Joseph Regenstein? Why was Leon Mandel important, apart from his obvious love of theatre? And how many buildings did John D. Rockefeller and his heirs actually pay for on campus? The answers, related by one of the College's best-known storytellers, will delight you and teach you more about our world-class (but deeply, locally rooted) Chicago university.
Our Campus Philanthropy Tour is framed as a walking tour, beginning in front of Harper Memorial Library (1116 E 59th St) and walking about six blocks around the main Quad of the University to end at Rockefeller Chapel (5850 S Woodlawn Ave). The tour takes about 75 minutes to complete in person. For a self-guided, in-person experience, visit your phone's app store and download the Vamonde app, and then search for "University of Chicago Campus Philanthropy Tour." The app will guide you from stop to stop as you walk across campus, with video content, transcripts, and archival photos associated with each stop. The tour can also be experienced virtually from anywhere in the world, either using the app or via this link in your favorite web browser.
This tour is the last of a series of hybrid self-guided/virtual tours produced by Chicago Studies as part of our 2020-2021 programming. If you have a Chicago story you'd like to tell (or would like told), let us know about it! We are interested in extending this series beyond COVID! For more information or to share your ideas, contact Chris Skrable, Director of Chicago Studies & Experiential Learning in the College.