Bronzeville is a large neighborhood on the city’s South Side running south of Cermak Road between Lake Michigan and King Drive on the east and the Dan Ryan Expressway on the west; 47th Street was and remains the hub of the neighborhood. During the “Great Migration” of the 1910s, the population of the area increased dramatically as Black Americans fled the segregated South in search of jobs and an improved quality of life. Residents included Ida B. Wells, Margaret Taylor-Burroughs, Gwendolyn Brooks, Lou Rawls, Louis Armstrong, and many others. A portion of the neighborhood was designated as the Chicago landmark Black Metropolis District in 1998.

Historian Bernard Turner will discuss how Bronzeville became a Black Metropolis and why it is now a National Heritage Area. He will take a look at the places and people who tell the important story of Bronzeville and how it has become an international tourist destination and cultural epicenter.

Our free annual program in honor of Black History Month is co-sponsored by Glessner House, Friends of Historic Second Church, Quinn Chapel A.M.E. Church, and Second Presbyterian Church.

May Morris (1862-1938), the younger daughter of William Morris, is recognized today as a pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement, a leading exponent of decorative needlework, and a campaigner for women artists. Despite being one of the foremost practitioners of her generation, it was design that May described as the very soul and essence of beautiful embroidery.

One of the largest collections of May’s designs, from roughly sketched ideas to finished patterns, is held by the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England. This presentation, based on Lynn Hulse’s book of the same name released in late 2025, showcases a selection of 25 of these designs, which are published for the first time, positioning May’s output within the artistic developments of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The presentation will be given by Lynn Hulse, a textile scholar and practitioner specializing in embroidered furnishings of the Aesthetic and Arts and Crafts movements. She is the author of several publications on decorative needlework and editor of May Morris: Art & Life (2017). Formerly archivist at the Royal School of Needlework, Lynn now runs Ornamental Embroidery which delivers workshops, lectures, and first-hand study sessions of objects in public and private collections, including the Ashmolean Museum.