USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. II > Part 15
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In April, 1891, Mr. George Brown Goode, of the National museum, at Washington, in conversation with
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Mr. James W. Ellsworth, a member of the board of directors of the Columbian Exposition, recommended the immediate appointment of a committee to foster a museum organization. From the date of the interview with Professor Goode, Mr. Ellsworth became an active advocate of a museum, as the outgrowth of the Expo- sition. At that time he was a member of the committee of foreign affairs of the Exposition Directory. Presi- dent Baker was the chairman of this committee, and with Mr. Ryerson, Mr. Lefens, Mr. Higinbotham and others early enlisted in this work of promotion. In out- lining the foreign work, for which appropriations were frequently sought from the directory, this committee constantly kept in view the ultimate establishment of a museum.
This purpose was especially indicated by purchases made abroad for the equipment of the archaeological and transportation departments. Mr. William Eleroy Curtis, of Washington, D. C., was commissioned to make an exhaustive collection of documents, paintings and other matter commemorative of the discovery of the western continent by Columbus. His labors resulted in the construction of a building representative of the ancient convent of La Rabida, and the filling it with a remarkable and unique collection of historical material, gathered in Europe, the West Indies and South America. The reception of these articles, on their arrival, caused a difficulty with the treasury department at Washing- ton. The government had no authority to import them free of duty, and could not permit their entry under the general exemption law that had been passed for the benefit of the Exposition, unless they were sent at once from the port of entry to Chicago in bond. This disposition of the articles was not practicable, because no place had yet been provided at Chicago which could be accepted as a bonded warehouse. Accordingly an organization was effected at Washington, under the style of the Columbian Historical Association, to take
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advantage of the general provisions of the law autho- rizing the free admission of goods imported for the use of scientific societies. Of this association Professor Putnam was elected president; Professor Wilson, of the Smithsonian Institute, vice-president; William E. Curtis, of the Latin-American Bureau of the Exposi- tion, secretary and treasurer. Members of the direc- tory of the Exposition contributed, personally, a con- siderable sum of money to provide the association with funds, and the money thus raised was unquestionably the first expended in the interest of the museum. The general expenses of the Columbian Historical Associa- tion were paid from the government appropriation for the department of state.
About the time of the formation of this important auxiliary, Representative Robert McMurdy, of the Hyde Park election district, introduced, in the Illinois state legislature, a bill providing for the establishment of museums in public parks, and stipulating the con- ditions and methods of their administration. The measure was popular, and became a law in June, 1892. Later in the year, through the instrumentality of Robert McMurdy, Samuel C. Eastman and Francis A. Riddle, the question of accepting the provisions of this law was submitted to the people of the three park districts of Chicago, and the vote thereupon was almost unani- mously in the affirmative.
The active agitation of the museum idea was renewed by a letter published by S. C. Eastman in the Tribune in July, 1893, followed by a series of strong editorials in the Herald. All the Chicago journals were also zealous friends of the museum, and in every way stim- ulated public interest in this cause. As a result of this public discussion and of numerous private consulta- tions, James W. Scott introduced, at a meeting of the directors of the Exposition, a resolution providing for the appointment of a committee of three to devise a method of confirming public sentiment, to this end,
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through an organization of its citizens. This com- mittee, consisting of George R. Davis, Harlow N. Higinbotham and James W. Scott, was appointed August 11, 1893. It promptly issued a circular calling a meeting of public spirited citizens, to be held at the Administration building of the Exposition, "to adopt measures in immediate aid of the project to establish in Chicago a great museum that shall be a fitting memorial of the World's Columbian Exposition and a permanent advantage and honor to the city."
Accordingly, on the evening of August 17, 1893, a public meeting, attended by about a hundred of the prominent citizens of Chicago, was held in the office of the director general in the Exposition grounds. Direc- tor General Davis presided, and S. C. Eastman acted as secretary. The first proposition was to enlarge the scope of the Columbian Historical Association. This was opposed on the ground that it was incorporated in Washington. The second suggestion was to operate under the charter of the Academy of Sciences in the city of Chicago. This was opposed, especially by Mr. Higinbotham, who spoke very earnestly in favor of a new and strong organization, independent of educa- tional institutions, locality, creed or calling, strong enough to stand alone, and large enough to take in everything. This, suiting the temper of the meeting, prevailed, and George E. Adams, Emil G. Hirsch, John A. Roche, Carter H. Harrison, Samuel C. Eastman, A. C. Bartlett, Alexander C. McClurg, Robert McMurdy and C. Fitzsimons were appointed as a committee to take the steps necessary to incorporate a museum.
Mr. McClurg afterward withdrew, and Edward E. Ayer was appointed in his place. At the same meeting the director general and the chiefs of the departments of the Exposition were requested to organize for the solicitation of contributions of exhibits.
Up to this time various names had been suggested for the museum: The Museum of Antiquities, Columbus
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Memorial Museum, World's Exposition Memorial Mus- eum, Columbus Museum of America, Chicago Colum- bian Museum, etc. August 21 the citizens' committee, above referred to, in preparing their application for articles of incorporation, adopted as a name: "The Columbian Museum of Chicago." At this same time names of incorporators were selected to the number of about sixty-five, and of trustees, of which the following is the list :
Charles B. Farwell, John C. Black, Frank W. Gun- saulus, George E. Adams, Matthew C. Bullock, Emil G. Hirsch, Edward E. Ayer, Daniel H. Burnham, Charles L. Hutchinson, Owen F. Aldis, George R. Davis, John A. Roche, Allison V. Armour, James W. Ellsworth, Edwin Walker.
The application for a charter was forwarded to Springfield, September 16.
Robert McMurdy, of this committee, prepared and sent to the Illinois delegates in congress a joint resolu- tion instructing the treasury department to admit free of duty all goods intended for museums or educational institutions. The resolution was promptly passed the following week.
The director general and chiefs of departments met September 4 to outline their work on the grounds, and appointed an executive committee to prosecute the canvass for exhibits for the museum. Of this com- mittee the director general was chairman, Prof. Fred- erick W. Putnam, vice-chairman; S. C. Eastman, secretary, and Frederick J. V. Skiff, William E. Cur- tis and Selim H. Peabody the other members. At a subsequent meeting Mr. Curtis withdrew, and Willard A. Smith was appointed in his place. The executive committee took up actively the work assigned to it; the zeal of the chiefs, in this behalf, was so great as to interfere seriously with their duties as Exposition officials, but the sentiment was so unanimous, and the interest in the projected museum so intense, that
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encouragement was nowhere lacking to do anything deemed necessary to aid the cause. Letters were writ- ten and sent in every direction, circulars were dis- patched everywhere, portions of the grounds were made into districts and personal appeals were made by the officers and attaches of every department of the Exposition. Meetings of the executive committee were held frequently, and members of the committee were in constant communication with the trustees of the new museum corporation. Meanwhile, the cor- poration had organized, by the election of Edwin Wal- ker, chairman; S. C. Eastman, secretary, and the appointment of committees on finance, by-laws and exhibits.
The finance committee-Messrs. Ayer, Adams, Ells- worth and Black-began at once the important and delicate task of securing the funds necessary to endow the museum, or, at least, in some measure to guarantee that, eventually, funds would be forthcoming, suffi- cient to justify the contributions of exhibits that were being solicited. As the middle of October approached nothing tangible in the shape of endowment had resulted from the efforts of the finance committee, and a period of discouragement came upon many of those at work for the museum. Up to this time the only available funds had been advanced by individual mem- bers of the committee. Nothing but the faith and devo- tion and courage of a few men prevented the disinte- gration of the preliminary organization and the regret- ful abandonment of the enterprise. In this dilemma Marshall Field stepped into the arena and surprised the friends of the museum and the community by his offer of $1,000,000 if half as much more could be raised from other sources. This amount was soon raised, George M. Pullman and Harlow N. Higinbotham each contributing $100,000, Mrs. Mary D. Sturges, of Lake Geneva, $50,000, and Edward E. Ayer giving his anthropological collection, valued at $100,000.
MARSHALL FIELD.
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Many others made donations of lesser amounts, whose names have been published in the reports of the mu- seum and whose influence was appreciated.
Upon this assurance of financial security every cloud of discouragement vanished. Confidence in the suc- cess and permanence of the museum was renewed. A spirit of emulation was aroused among exhibitors, American individuals and corporations, and especially in foreign and state commissions, and contributions were enlarged upon the scale of the endowment. The many valuable department collections that had been in danger of ruinous distribution, at once became the unquestioned property of the museum, and, by common agreement, the different educational institutions dis- continued their efforts to secure contributions in their own behalf, and united in working for the museum.
In the Evening Post of September 14, A. W. Manning, writing upon the supposition that the Exposition would declare a dividend upon its capital stock, suggested that the holders of such stock contribute the same to the museum. November 1 the finance committee issued a circular to stockholders soliciting donations, the first to respond being L. C. Stebbins with fifty shares. The stock donations have amounted to more than $1,500,000, upon which a dividend of 10 per cent has been received.
During the month of November the museum corpora- tion appointed Ralph Metcalf as its representative on the Exposition grounds, and this gentleman opened offices in the then partly deserted Administration build- ing, and co-operated actively with the executive com- mittee of chiefs. The museum committee on exhibits, consisting of Messrs. Adams, Ayer and Ellsworth, made quite extensive purchases shortly after the close of the Exposition, including the collections from Paraguay, Peru, Java, Samoa and the Hagenbeck material. The first large purchase made was that of the Ward collec- tion of natural history, for which $95,000 was paid.
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On November 18 it was formally determined to mass the donations of exhibits in Fine Arts hall. With this end in view, all the committees interested in the articles, collections or exhibits, either donated or purchased, con- centrated their efforts preparatory to a general removal. On December 7 Frederick J. V. Skiff, chief of the department of mines and mining of the Exposition, accepted temporary charge of affairs. With him a number of gentlemen, including Edward E. Ayer, James W. Ellsworth, Prof. T. C. Chamberlain, of the Chicago University, and Professor Putnam met in Fine Arts hall, and determined in a rough way the preliminary installation plan of the museum. About 4 o'clock in the afternoon the first load of material for the museum was placed under the roof of that building.
From this general account of what transpired from the initiation of a movement for a museum, up to the beginning of the work of installation, it will be seen that, while few great public acts and little unified labor were apparent, so many men, each in his own field, and largely by his own volition, were sincerely enlisted in the movement, that there was a generous and energetic co-operation in gathering material, in making pur- chases and securing funds. Thus the growth of the museum was contemporaneous with the progress of the Exposition.
Now began the task of gathering the vast amount of material from every part and corner, every stretch and recess of the vast area of the Exposition grounds, from the Midway Plaisance, from the Wooded island, from the Forestry building to the Fisheries building. Hun- dreds upon hundreds of tons of exhibits, collections and objects of every character, whether more or less desirable, were gathered under the broad shelter of the Fine Arts building. Then began selection, arrange- ment, re-arrangement, alteration and elaboration. Gradually, hall by hall, the building was emptied of the exhibits for whose display it was originally erected,
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and as the objects of art departed, a mass of material poured in, heterogeneous in character and immense in extent, objects from the remotest lands and from the most diversified climes. Out of these began to grow a sequential and systematic exposition of wonderful and instructive objects gathered from every quarter of the globe.
A temporary allotment of space permitted at first but a rough classification. The winter was consumed in dividing, determining and listing the material that had been received. The many collections, carefully and judiciously purchased by the trustees and by the department chiefs furnished a broad foundation upon which a correct organization could be made. Gaps in the continuity of subjects were in a large degree obviated, so that at an early day from one end of the museum to the other could be traced, almost without a break, the living and instructive story of nature, of man and of his works; thus presenting features which could be found nowhere else in the world.
On January 3, 1894, the board of trustees was re- organized, and the following persons constituted members : Harlow N. Higinbotham, Edward E. Ayer, Norman B. Ream, Norman Williams, George E. Adams, Edwin Walker, Owen F. Aldis, Martin A. Ryerson, Huntington W. Jackson, Cyrus H. McCormick, Watson F. Blair, George Manierre, William J. Chalmers, George R. Davis, Arthur B. Jones.
Edward E. Ayer was elected president, Martin A. Ryerson, vice-president, Ralph Metcalf, secretary (who afterward resigned, and was succeeded by George Manierre), and Byron L. Smith, treasurer. Harlow N. Higinbotham was made chairman of the executive committee, and Frederick J. V. Skiff was chosen director-in-chief.
May 1, 1894, the installation of the museum was sub- stantially finished, if such a process can ever be deemed finished. On the 21st, by a unanimous vote, the trust-
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ees decided to name the institution "The Field Columbian Museum."
The museum was dedicated June 2, 1894, with appro- priate ceremonies.
The building in which the collections of the museum are now installed was erected to contain the exhibits of fine arts at the World's Columbian Exposition. It occupies a central position in the northern area of Jackson park; and its southern facade overlooks a sheet of water called the North pond. The main struc- ture consists of two naves crossing centrally, 100 feet wide, 70 feet high, and respectively 500 and 350 feet long, the naves of which are surrounded by galleries. Their intersection is crowned by a dome which reaches a height of 125 feet. The four angular spaces, formed by the naves, are occupied by structures of a little less altitude, filling out the rectangle of the axis of the naves. At a little distance from each of the northern angles stands an annex, 200 by 120 feet, connected to the main building by a corridor.
The total floor area of the buildings is about six acres, divided into eighty halls, with rooms for studios, laboratories and storerooms. Light in exhibition rooms is obtained wholly from above. The walls are of brick covered with staff, having the effect of white marble and giving to the broad structure an appear- ance of solidity and durability. It was designed by Charles B. Atwood, after a Spanish model in the Grecian Ionic style. By many it was deemed the most sym- metrical, harmonious and completely beautiful of all the magnificent structures which gave to the World's Columbian Exposition its renown as an unrivaled architectural dream.
The great museums of the world have usually been developed by a steady growth, gathering impetus slowly during long periods of time. Never before has such an institution sprung so suddenly into a full and vigorous existence. Within a few weeks the museum
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became the beneficiary of a princely donation of $1,500,- 000, of a spacious edifice erected for exposition pur- poses and emptied of one class of exhibits just when it was needed to shelter another, and the residuary lega- tee of the most extensive and complete Exposition yet gathered in the history of the world. In one brief month were united exhibits, building and funds, each entirely insufficient by itself, but each the binding link which united the other two into a completely organized and efficient whole.
The great commercial exhibits were soon distributed and returned to the sources whence they had been col- lected. Magnificent they were, grand, costly, power- ful, but in every case made for a purpose, to do some- thing, and they merely paused by the way to show in themselves the world's progress in the art of subduing herself. The great throbbing engines, the luminifer- ous dynamos, the queenly locomotives, each followed by her train of palaces, the tremendous enginery of war, terrible in silence, the monster tube, peering with Cyclopean eye into the remotest heavens; and the myriad other exhibits of which those named were only the more notable types, all had enjoyed a jubilee rest, and thenceforth were to be chained down to some fitting work of daily recurrence. Only when they are worn out, or are superseded by other structures or inven- tions, illustrative of yet further progress, when they have come to show to a new generation of men what their forefathers knew and achieved, will these objects find a place as landmarks of the past.
Few exhibits came from the departments of machin- ery or electricity ; from modern transportation or man- ufactures; from fine arts, the exhibits of which were mostly loaned or for sale ; from education, out of which grew numerous pedagogical collections ; nor from hor- ticulture, her exhibits being mostly of a perishable nature, as were many of those in agriculture.
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In certain directions funds had been expended liber- ally by private donors, by the Exposition authorities, and by the government of the United States, for the collection and preparation of exhibits to fill some place in the Exposition, and by these means important results had been secured. All such collections naturally gravitated to the Field Columbian Museum.
The department of agriculture, of which William I. Buchanan was chief, was an immense storehouse crowded with museum material. The commissioners of foreign countries, and those representing the states of the Union, had without exception exploited exhibits of the agricultural resources of their several countries ; and all were delighted at the prospect of keeping together in Chicago a fitting presentation of the col- lection which had cost them so much effort and thought. From Russia, Japan, Corea, Ceylon, Siam and various parts of India, from Mexico, Central America and all the states of South America came complete sets of material, illustrating the great staples that form the most important factors of the world's commerce.
Particularly true was this of the collections of tim- bers and other forest products gathered in the Forestry building. It is no extravagant assertion to claim that never have the world's stores of beautiful and durable woods, adapted to the uses of human needs and genius, and of fruits, gums, resins and all similar forest prod- ucts been found in such generous abundance as in the stream flowing from the Forestry building to the Field museum. Nor was the museum grasping of the wealth thus offered to it. Machinery driven by electric power was installed, and the material was divided and gener- ously distributed to many other institutions of like pur- poses of usefulness. Any enumeration of even the principal collections thus utilized would become tedious. The assemblage of the material was skillfully conducted by Dr. Charles F. Millspaugh, since the curator of bot- any in the museum.
- BRITISH INDIA .=
SECTION IN GALLERY OF ECONOMIC BOTANY.
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The account of the collections in this department should not omit to mention the loan from the United States department of agriculture of a complete collec- tion of tobaccos, cottons, fiber plants, Alaskan woods and a series of forest trees.
These collections from the department of agriculture furnish the museum with an extensive and varied bo- tanical equipment, representing a wide geographical distribution.
The department of mines, mining and metallurgy has, in addition to the exhibits that spontaneously grav- itated thereto, three special exhibits, promoted by its own agents from funds provided by the Exposition directory. These exhibits are unique in character, broad in design and remarkably complete in execution.
The first is an exhaustive account of the mineral combustibles of the United States. Its foundation consists of a map of the country, prepared upon a scale of ten miles to the inch, and laid horizontally upon plate glass. By this map is shown, first, the general physical aspects of the country, its mountains, plains, rivers, etc .; second, the positions and extent of all fields of coal of economic value, anthracite, semi-bitu- minous, bituminous and lignite, shown by areas colored black; third, the markets supplied by these coal fields, and the great lines of transportation by which their products are distributed.
Second, a collection of coals, lignites and cokes was prepared, representing every coal producing county in the country.
Third, a series of coal samples was shown in wall cases surrounding the plate glass map, each being num- bered to correspond with numbers placed on the map. With each sample are statistics as to quality of coal, obtained by careful chemical analysis, thickness of seam, output of mine, etc.
The scheme was executed with satisfactory results, and conveys a comprehensive account of the geographic
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distribution and characteristics of the economic mineral. The map illustrates many interesting facts concerning the relations of the coal fields to each other, to lines of transportation and distribution, to the great centers of industry, and to their bearing on the future develop- ment of new manufacturing or industrial regions. The samples and their accompanying data were obtained at the cost of much labor and application. Specially pre- pared blanks were sent to all the mine owners of the country, and the data returned were carefully compiled and edited. The samples were trimmed to cubes of uniform dimensions, and arranged by states, so that coals of any locality could be readily found. The col- lection is similarly installed in the halls of the museum.
The second collection included the building and ornamental stones of the United States. A special cir- cular, distributed among quarry men in the principal stone producing regions, explained the scope of the proposed exhibit, and described the method in which the specimens should be prepared. They were to be trimmed in 4-inch cubes, showing the natural fracture and the different varieties of dressing, as sawn, planed, ribbed, tooled and polished. Most of the samples came as contributions; some were loaned. Special data were obtained for the samples, showing the location of quarry, the character of the stone, the trend of strata, chemical analysis, and physical test as to crushing load, resistance against frost, etc. Aseries of transparencies, illustrating, on a large scale, the microscopic structure of typical stone specimens, was prepared especially for this exhibit by George P. Merrill, of the National museum at Washington, author of a work on the build- ing and ornamental stones of the United States. This collection of building stones is now in possession of the Field Columbian Museum.
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