Will Hansen
Will Hansen is the Roger and Julie Baskes Vice President for Collections and Library Services, and Curator of Americana at the Newberry Library. He holds a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He began his career in libraries at the Newberry in 2003 as a Circulation Assistant. From 2007 to May 2014, he was Assistant Curator of Collections at Duke University’s David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, and returned to the Newberry in June 2014 as Director of Reader Services and Curator of Americana. He has collected for and curated the Newberry’s Indigenous Studies collections since 2014. He has written published articles on improving access to Indigenous Studies collections, Herman Melville, active learning with primary source materials, archives of “born-digital” materials, and other topics. His curated exhibitions at the Newberry include Hamilton: The History Behind the Musical in 2017; Melville: Finding America at Sea in 2019; ¡Viva la Libertad! Latin America and the Age of Revolutions in 2021; and Indigenous Portraits Unbound in 2023–24.