The William L. Thompson Collections Fellows

Alexandra Cade is a PhD student in the History of American Civilization at the University of Delaware and an adjunct curator at the Sigal Music Museum in Greenville, South Carolina. An interdisciplinary scholar and musician, Alexandra studies the material culture of music and performance in the early nineteenth-century Atlantic World. Alexandra received her BM in viola performance from the Eastman School of Music and her MA from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture, where she completed her thesis on amateur-made antebellum American pianos. Additionally, Alexandra is an alum of two MESDA Summer Institutes. ​

Bryn Cooley is the Collections Manager at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., where she collaboratively manages a collection of over 350,000 architectural drawings, photographs, tools, toys, sculptures, and more. Bryn received her BA in English, History, and Humanities from Valparaiso University and her MA in Museum Studies from the George Washington University.  While in graduate school, she completed internships at Blair House and The Office of the Senate Curator.  She formerly managed the collection at Tudor Place Historic House & Garden in Georgetown and is also an alum of Historic Deerfield’s Summer Fellowship Program in Massachusetts.