Will Quam, Chicago tour guide and historian, will join the Hyde Park Historical Society to discuss his newest book, Fire and Clay: How Bricks Reveal the Hidden History of Chicago, published by the University of Chicago Press.

About the book Fire and Clay traces Chicago’s development through the city’s most ubiquitous building material: brick. Quam uses architectural evidence, industrial history, and neighborhood stories to show how brick production, design choices, and rebuilding after disaster shaped Chicago’s physical and social landscape. The book explores brickmakers, kilns, brickwork styles, and the ways bricks reveal patterns of labor, migration, commerce, and urban change.

About Will Quam Will Quam is a Chicago tour guide and historian with experience interpreting the city’s neighborhoods, architecture, and industrial past for visitors and residents. His work emphasizes material culture and the everyday artifacts that illuminate larger historical forces.