ABSR and the Beverly Shores Depot Museum and Art Gallery Present
The Second
SUNDAY SPEAKER SERIES
Sunday, April 27th, 1-3pm
At the Beverly Shores Administration Building
Refreshments following at The Depot Museum and Art Gallery
A Home in the Dunes
Serena Sutliff, Curator
Westchester Township History Museum
Everyone is welcome to attend
A Home in the Dunes: The Prairie Club and the Indiana Dunes State Park
The Prairie Club began as a small group of Chicagoans who wanted to get outdoors and enjoy nature walks. From those earliest small group walks developed a club of hundreds who learned to appreciate the nature and beauty of the Indiana dunes. After making the dunes their home-away-from-home, the Club worked ceaselessly to garner national attention for the dunes in the hopes of creating a national park, thereby preserving the dunes for future generations. When other national concerns impeded their plans for a national park, the Club turned their attention to the new Indiana State Park system and helped create the Indiana Dunes State Park.
Information about Serena Sutliff, Curator, Westchester Township History Museum:
Serena Sutliff was born and raised in Dyer, Indiana, and although she had visited the dunes a few times as a child, she does not remember having a real understanding of what they were, apart from being an excellent place to sled in the winter.
She received her bachelor’s degree in English and history from Concordia University in Austin, Texas in 2001. After teaching middle school and high school English and history for 8 years, she decided to leave the teaching field and pursue museum work. She received her M.A. in history from the University of North Carolina in Greensboro in 2011. During her graduate school coursework, she completed a summer internship at the Westchester Township History Museum under the guidance of Jane Walsh-Brown. This internship re-introduced her to the great history of Northwest Indiana, particularly that of the dunes.
After graduate school, she became Curator at the Westchester Township History Museum after Jane Walsh-Brown’s retirement. Today, she reports she gets to spend her time playing with antiques, thumbing through awesome photographs, planning exhibits, leading school groups, and giving programs (and other duties as assigned, of course).
She is an avid reader, obsessive jigsaw puzzler, family historian, aunt to two rowdy nephews, and happy resident of Northwest Indiana once again.