The Academy's Plea for Library Land

Marshall Field
(portrait bust at the Merchandise Mart,
sculptor: Milton Horn)

(note: the following clipping was taken from the Art Institutes's scrapbook. There was no reference to a date or name of the newspaper from which it came)


"The recent prosperous state of affairs throughout the country and particularly in Chicago, encourages us to once more put art on its feet in Chicago and rear an institution that shall not only be an ornament and credit to our city, but of incalculable advantage to all classes of our citizens as well as to the great Northwest. The effort now being made to procure for the use of the Public Library the space known as the Dearborn park seems to offer just the opportunity needed to secure a start in the right direction, there being ample space on the park ground for the two institutions., if the general government will grant the academy 125 X 162 feet of the same for the purpose of erecting a building thereon, we have no doubt of our ability to raise the necessary funds for its construction, as the academy is held in high estimation by our best citizens.

As showing the truth of the later statement, I append a copy of a petition that will shortly be submitted to Congress with the signatures thereon attached:


“To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, Washington D.C.: the undersigned artists and citizens, interested in the progress of art culture, now resident in Chicago, respectfully request your honorable body to grant a portion of the land asked for and known as Dearborn Park, and specified in a certain bill now before your honorable body, and which was sent by the corporate authorities of Chicago, in behalf of the public library of said city, to the Chicago Academy of Design. There being 385 feet frontage by 162.6 feet in depth in the space asked for in said bill, and there being more space than is required for library purposes, we ask that 125 feet of said frontage and 162.6 feet of depth be granted to the Academy of Design for the purpose of creating thereon a building devoted to art purposes.

Your petitioners pray that said bill be so amended by inserting the words “Chicago Academy of Design” after the words “Chicago Public Library” so as to read
“Chicago Public Library and Chicago Academy of Design”

Enoch Root, president Chicago Academy of Design, John F. Stafford, recording secretary; Paul Brown, J.F. Gookins, H.E.C. Peterson, G.S. Collis, A.D. Bucher, Leonard W. Volk, R.W. Wallis, , council of the Chicago Academy of Design

It is also signed by the following named gentlemen:

, Charles H. Schwab, C.W. Henderson, C.H. Fargo, M.D. Wells,

Marshall Field
J.W. Doane: Coffee and Tea importer; director of Pullman Palace Car Company
C.H. Fargo is a shoe manufacturer
M.D. Wells : wholesale boot and shoes
Charles H. Schwab: boot manufacturer
Max A. Mayer – Jewish philanthropist
Williams Sewars (an abutting property owner)
D.B. Fisk, Reid, Murdock, and Fisher (abutting property owners)
Joseph Rutter
F.A. Winston
J. Russel Jones: Delegate to Republican National Convention from Illinois, 1868; member of Republican National Committee from Illinois, 1868-70; U.S. Minister to Belgium, 1869-75.
Herbert C. Ayer
Potter Palmer (hotelier - The Palmer House)
S. B. Cobb
W. P. Nixon
John B. Drake (hotelier - son built the Drake Hotel)
Robert Law
E.G. Keith
Henry W. King
George C. Walker
F. F. Spencer
H.F. Evans
J.H. Dole (??)

An impressive list -- in order of importance, one presumes -- with the city's richest man, Marshall Field, at the top.

(but why is J.H. Dole included ? Is this the same man who is also quoted as being against this plea for land ? Are parts of this list fictitious ?)