Remembering Kate Gleason: Introducing a Twentieth-Century Businesswoman to Twenty-First Century Students

Abstract

In the fall of 2015, the faculty of the Museum Studies Program at RIT mounted an exhibition titled "Kate Gleason, Visionary: A Tribute on Her 150th Birthday." While Kate Gleason’s name is familiar on the RIT campus because the College of Engineering is named for her, this association obscures recognition of her many and varied accomplishments. The challenge we undertook was to contextualize her work in engineering within her other entrepreneurial endeavors in manufacturing, banking, and building, focusing on the innovation and vision that united them. In addition, we wanted Gleason’s career and accomplishments to be compelling and relevant to our students. To this end we created an exhibition in two different formats: first, a mobile pop-up exhibition that traveled to several venues on campus to encounter students in the course of their daily campus routine and second, a formal gallery exhibition in the campus library. These articles reflect on the process of creating the exhibition’s underlying thesis, bringing the concept to life in two different types of exhibitions, engaging students in the creative process, and reflecting on the exhibition’s impact on its audience.