The Prairie Landscape

People Involved: Museum on Main Street (MoMS)

Between Fences Scholars

Nora Pat Small is Associate Professor of History and Program Coordinator for the Historical Administration Program at Eastern Illinois University where she teaches American architectural history and historic preservation. Nora Pat earned her Ph.D. in American and New England Studies at Boston University, and her research interests focus on the vernacular built environment of the mid-18th to mid-19th centuries. Her last big project was a book entitled, Beauty and Convenience: Architecture and Order in the Early Republic and she is currently working on an architectural and economic history of US lighthouses from 1789-1860. She has worked with numerous organizations in the Charleston area, including the Five Mile House Foundation, the Coles County Regional Planning Commission Historic Preservation Advisory Board, and the Lincoln-Sargent Farm Foundation Board.

Debra A. Reid grew up on a farm in Southern Illinois - near Rockwood in Randolph County - with an extended family that lives similar to those presented at midwestern open air museums today; priveys, work with horses, farm work based on the signs of the moon, woven wire fences, and barbed wire all figured prominently in her upbringing. Currently, Debra is Associate Professor in the History Department at Eastern Illinois University where she teaches several courses in the Historical Administration program. She earned a B.S. in Historic Preservation at Southeast Missouri State University, was a summer fellow at Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts, and then earned an M.A. in History Museum Studies from the Cooperstown Graduate Program, an M.A. in History from Baylor University, and a Ph.D. in History from Texas A&M. Since late 1982, she has worked with an extensive list of historic sites and open air museums in Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Texas, and Illinois.

Journey Stories Scholar

Dennis Cremin holds a PhD in History from Loyola University Chicago and has taught at College of DuPage, Joliet Junior College, Loyola University Chicago, North Central College, and is currently Assistant Professor at Lewis University. He has also served as the Historian and Director of Research and Public Programs for the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Gaylord Building in Lockport, Illinois.