A.C. McClurg & Co., a book publishing house and the first stationery business in Chicago, began in 1844 as W.W. Barlow & Co. Within five years of its establishment, the company underwent several transitions in ownership and partnership, with its name changing to S.C. Griggs & Co. and then to Griggs, Bross & Co. In 1859, Alexander C. McClurg (1832–1901) was hired as a clerk. McClurg was born in Philadelphia and moved to Pittsburg with his family. He attended the University of Western Pennsylvania and graduated from Miami University in 1853 with a degree in law. He passed the bar but never pursued a profession in law. After inquiring about employment via letter, McClurg moved to Chicago and began working at S.C. Griggs & Co. In 1861, McClurg enlisted as a private soldier in the Union Army. He encountered action early in his military career. Based on his meritorious services, he was promoted Captain of the Eighty-Eighth Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and, by the end of the war, he had achieved the status of Lieutenant General. Leaving the service with honors, McClurg returned to his appointment at S.C Griggs & Co. In 1868, a blaze destroyed the entire inventory of S.C. Griggs. In 1871, a second disaster—the Great Chicago Fire—once again annihilated the store. After McClurg, E.L. Jansen, and F.B. Smith purchased S.C. Griggs’s shares, the company became known as Jansen, McClurg & Co. until Jansen’s retirement in 1886. Thereafter, it presumed its longest-lasting name: A.C. McClurg & Co. In 1876, McClurg married Eleanor Wheeler (1847–1905), an heiress and niece of Chicago mayor William B. Ogden. The retail business S.A. Maxwell & Co. sold their wholesale and retail book business and stationery business to A.C. McClurg & Co. in 1890. McClurg went on to expand the business, making his company a staple in midwestern publishing and a dominant presence on a national scale. McClurg paid special attention to the book departments, often traveling abroad to find rare books for the company and bookstore. He published the popular monthly literary magazine The Dial from 1880 to 1892. Charles Wilder Davis managed the publishing department until his death in 1898. In addition to its publishing house, the firm supplied general stores with top-of-the-line stationery and writing instruments, for which wholesale department head John B. Fay traveled to Europe to procure. Serving as a wholesaler to retailers in the Midwest and western United States, A.C. McClurg & Co. also supplied toiletry goods such as toothbrushes, hair combs, and druggists’ items. The business succumbed to yet another fire on February 12, 1899, this time at its five-story red brick building on Wabash Avenue and Madison Street, which McClurg & Co. had occupied for sixteen years. As the Chicago Daily Tribune news story noted, “Bibliophiles all over the country will feel a sense of personal loss in the destruction of ‘Saints and Sinners Corner,’ the southwestern corner of the ground floor of the McClurg Building, which was given up to George M. Millard and rare literary treasures. The department was established in 1874, and Mr. Millard has managed it ever since.” Following this misfortune, McClurg announced he would retire from the business and focus on his literary interests. When the company was reorganized, he distributed some stock to his employees and offered shares to them at a reasonable rate. He died in 1901 from Bright’s disease and was buried at Graceland Cemetery, where a sixteen-foot granite Celtic cross marks his family plot. Built after the fire in 1899 and located in the Loop, the McClurg Stationers and Booksellers Building was designed by the Chicago School architectural firm Holabird & Roche. The historic nine-story skyscraper entered the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. As Joseph J. Korom, Jr. describes in The American Skyscraper, 1850–1940: “The McClurg is hidden on Wabash Street, just south of Adams. Its noisy mid-block location places it adjacent to the elevated train tracks of the Wabash line, and just south of an iron-trussed commuter station perched level with its second floor. Here is a microcosm of fin de siècle Chicago where immediate access to public transportation was paramount to a skyscraper’s tenants, customers, and the ultimate economic success of the skyscraper itself.” Although the building lacked windows on its sides, Holabird & Roche remedied the absence of sunlight with nine thousand square feet of windows on the building’s façade. In subsequent years, A.C. McClurg & Co. moved away from collecting rare and fine books and turned toward publishing new works, including Edgar Rice Burroughs’s commercially successful Tarzan of the Apes novels. One of A.C. McClurg and Co.’s most culturally and historically significant publications was sociologist and activist W.E.B. Du Bois’s collection of essays The Souls of Black Folk (1913). In 1923, A.C. McClurg sold its Wabash Street shop to Bretano’s, a bookstore established in New York by August Brentano, to focus on its wholesale operations. A.C. McClurg remained in business until its liquidation in 1962.
“A Richly-Attired Thief: Caught Shop-Lifting at A.C. McClurg & Co.’s by a Clerk.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 9, 1888. A.C. McClurg & Co. A.C. McClurg & Co.’s Catalogue of Fine and Rare Imported Books. Chicago: The Company, 1907. A.C. McClurg & Co. A.C. McClurg & Co.’s Illustrated Price List of Blank Books, Stationery, Photograph Albums, Holiday Goods, Etc., Etc. Chicago: The Company, 1886. A.C. McClurg & Co. A Classified Catalogue of 3,500 Volumes Suitable for a Public Library. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1901. A.C. McClurg & Co. Illustrated Holiday Catalogue, 1895–6. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1895. A.C. McClurg & Co. Records, The Newberry Library, Chicago. “A.C. McClurg Acquired.” Chicago Tribune, December 28, 1966. Babcock, Frederic. “Among the Authors.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 14, 1946. Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men of Chicago. Chicago: Wilson & St. Clair, 1868. Butcher, Fanny. “The Literary Spotlight.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 23, 1950. Butcher, Fanny. “The Literary Spotlight.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 26, 1959. “Charles Wilder Davis Dead: Commander of the Loyal Legion and Connected with A.C. McClurg & Co.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 16, 1898. “Chicago Real Estate: Mandel Bros. Lease the Old M’Clurg Building Site; Form Intends Erecting a Fireproof, Nine-Story Structure on the Wabash Avenue and Madison Street Corner, Connecting with Their Stores.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1900. Clark, Herma. “When Chicago Was Chicago.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 9, 1947. “Contract for Books Awarded: Public Library Trustees Will Buy New American Works from A.C. McClurg & Co.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 28, 1904. Cottenet, Cécile. Race, Ethnicity, and Publishing in America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014. “Death of A.C. McClurg; Head of Chicago Publishing House Expires at St. Augustine, Where He Went to Seek Health.” New York Times, April 16, 1901. Dietrich, Lucas. “Across the Color Line: Race, Reception, and the U.S. Literary Marketplace, 1877–1920.” PhD diss., University of New Hampshire, 2015. Dietrich, Lucas. “At the Dawning of the Twentieth Century: W.E.B. Du Bois, A.C. McClurg & Co., and the Early Circulation of The Souls of Black Folk.” Book History 20 (2017): 307–329. Drury, John. Dedicated to the Friends, Customers, and Employees of A.C. McClurg & Co. on the Occasion of Its Centennial, 1844–1944. Chicago: A.C. McClurg, 1944. Du Bois Papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. Dzwonkoski, Peter, American Literary Publishing Houses, 1638–1899. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1986. “Erase All Social Lines: Women of St. James’ Church Guests at a Tea; Mrs. A.C. McClurg Invites Every Member, Irrespective of Husband’s Calling—Several Hundred Attend the Reception in Lake Shore Drive Residence—Plans for Raising $75,000 Endowment Fund Are Discussed Informally.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 11, 1904. “Expansion on State Street.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1900. Federal Writers’ Project, Illinois. Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1947. “Gen. M’Clurg’s Apologies.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 9, 1888. “General A.C. M’Clurg, Who Died Yesterday.” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 16, 1901. “House of General A.C. McClurg, Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Ill.” American Architect and Building News 36 (April 16, 1892): 46, pl. 851. Illustrated Holiday Catalogue, 1895–6. Chicago: A.C. McClurg and Co., 1895. Korom, Jr., Joseph J. The American Skyscraper, 1850–1940: A Celebration of Height. Boston: Branden, 2016. “Lenten Sewing by Women Will Benefit Hospitals: Mrs. A.C. McClurg and Her Friends Have Prepared 1,600 Garments to Be Given to the Needy.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 29, 1904. “Maxwell Confirms the Sale: A.C. McClurg & Co. Are Now Proprietors of His Establishment.” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 1, 1891. “M’Clurg’s Store in Ruins: Big Bookhouse and Contents at Madison and Wabash Burn; Blaze Starts at 10 A.M. Simultaneously with an Explosion on the Third Floor, and in Three Hours the Ruin Is Complete—Plans for Erecting a New Building Under Consideration—Water Damages Mandel Bros. and Others—Total Loss $650,000.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 13, 1899. McClurg, A.C. “From A.C. McClurg & Co.” The Literary World: A Monthly Review of Current Literature 29, no. 4 (February 19, 1898): 58. “McClurg Has Completed Its First Hundred Years.” Publishers’ Weekly 146 (September 2, 1944): 814–819. “McClurg’s New Building: 120-Year Old Firm to Start Its Plant on Anniversary.” Chicago Tribune, August 2, 1963. McIlvaine, Mabel. Reminiscences of Chicago during the Civil War. Chicago: R.R. Donnelley , 1914. Morris, Charles, ed. Men of the Century: An Historical Work Giving Portraits and Sketches of Eminent Citizens of the United States. Philadelphia: Hamersly & Co., 1896. Morris, Jack Cassius. “The Publishing Activities of S.C. Griggs and Company, 1848–1896; Jansen, McClurg and Company, 1872–1886; and A.C. McClurg and Company, 1886–1900; with Lists of Publications.” MLS thesis, University of Illinois, 1941. “Mosaics.” The Inland Architect and News Record 42, no. 2: (April 1903): 24. Mott, Frank L. A History of American Magazines, Volume III: 1865–1885. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1938. “Mrs. Carter Harrison Writes Travel Book.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 23, 1918. “New Location for M’Clurg: Firm Takes Up Temporary Quarters in Keith Building—Fire in Open Board of Trade.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 14, 1899. “New Store for M’Clurg: Arrangements Made for Erection of Large Building; Proprietors of Book Concern Negotiating with Several Firms—Announce Present Quarters Are Temporary and Expected to Be in New Establishment by Fall—Fail to Reach Terms with Rutters, Who Own Site of Fire-Wrecked House.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 28, 1899. “Plan to Continue Business: Members of McClurg & Co. Discuss Schemes for a New Building on the Old Site.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 13, 1899. “Recent Realty Sales and Leases: A.C. McClurg & Co. Will Continue to Occupy Their Present Quarters.” Chicago Daily Tribune, April 11, 1897. “Residence of A.C. McClurg, Chicago.” Inland Architect and News Record 20 (December 1892): 58. “Says Book Ridicules Him: W.H. Lytell Sues A.C. McClurg & Co., Publishers, for Damages; Story of Theatrical Life; Manager ‘Bill Truetell’ Alleged to be Caricature of Plaintiff.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 26, 1909. Smith, Frederick B. A Sketch of the Origin and History of the House of A.C. McClurg. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1902. Smith, Harold Bryon and Griggs, S.C. Chicago Book Trade. Chicago: S.C. Griggs & Company, 1858–1860.
AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts)
Established in 1914 as the American Institute of Graphic Arts, AIGA is the oldest professional organization devoted to design in the United States. Since its formation in New York, AIGA has grown to become one of the major professional associations dedicated to design in the United States and abroad. Its forty founding members included illustrator and designer F.G. Cooper (1883–1962) and typography pioneer Frederic W. Goudy (1865–1947) as well as prominent fine and commercial printers Hal Marchbanks (1877–1934) and William Edwin Rudge (1876–1931). The organization initially focused on the promotion of fine typography, bookmaking, and high-quality commercial printing. Responding to the new multi-faceted profession of the ‘designer,’ which emerged from the marketing needs of the flourishing American economy, AIGA helped to broaden the graphic arts into a diverse set of practices. As early as the 1920s, AIGA membership expanded to typographers, printers, illustrators, package designers, trademark designers, photographers, industrial designers, jewelry designers, and glass designers. It was also the first design association to accept women as members. Frances Atwater, a typographer at the New York Times, and Baltimore Museum of Art Director Florence N. Levy set this precedent. By the 1981, local AIGA chapters were initiated throughout the United States. As of 2010, the Chicago branch held a membership of 1,318. The association continues to connect practitioners, survey the field, and discuss developments. With a national membership of seventy chapters and 26,000 design practitioners, scholars, and students, AIGA is the largest design association in the nation, sponsoring design exhibitions, publications, lectures, workshops, and professional awards.
Challos, Courtney. “City Seeks Simpler Ballot: Officials Elect to Ask for Proposals from Graphic Designers.” Chicago Tribune, November 29, 2000. Challos, Courtney. “Redesigned Election Ballot to Get Trial Run in Primary.” Chicago Tribune, January 8, 2001. “Editorials: How to Make a Better Ballot.” Chicago Tribune, December 3, 2000. Emmett, Burton. “A.I.G.A. Spirit—What Is It?” July 10, 1924. http://www.aiga.org/aiga-spirit-what-is-it. “FLOR Recipient of AIGA Chicago Corporate Design Leadership Award.” PR Newswire, June 9, 2011. Heller, Steven and Marie Finamore, ed. Design Culture: An Anthology of Writing from the AIGA Journal of Graphic Design. New York: Allworth Press, 1997. Heller, Steven and Nathan Gluck. “Seventy-Five Years of AIGA.” http://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/seventy-five-years-of-aiga/ “IIT Institute of Design Receives AIGA Corporate Design Leadership Award.” States News Service, February 2, 2005. Margolin, Victor. “Graphic Design in Chicago.” In Chicago Architecture and Design, 1923–1993: Reconfiguration of an American Metropolis, edited by John Zukowsky, 283–301. Munich: Prestel, 1993. Margolin, Victor and Robert Perlman, ed. Chicago Graphic Design: The Best of Chicago Graphic Design, with Essays on Past and Future Trends. Rockport, Massachusetts: RWP and Rockport Publishing, 1994. “Morningstar Receives AIGA Chicago Chapter Corporate Design Leadership Award.” PR Newswire, May 21, 2010. Mortell, Constance L. “Poetry Partners.” Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1996. “News of Authors and Books.” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 17, 1923. Sullivan, Barbara. “Morton International’s Report Wins in Midwest Competition.” Chicago Tribune, November 14, 1995. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. “AIGA: About.” http://www.aiga.org/about/. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. AIGA Chicago: 2009/2010. Chicago: Lake County Press, 2010. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. “AIGA Chicago: Mission.” https://chicago.aiga.org/about-us/mission/ The American Institute of Graphic Arts. AIGA Chicago: Snapshots 2006/2007. Chicago, Illinois: Lake County Press, 2007. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. “AIGA Design Archives: About.” http://designarchives.aiga.org/#/about The American Institute of Graphic Arts. “AIGA: FAQs.” http://www.aiga.org/faqs. The American Institute of Graphic Arts. “AIGA History Timeline.” http://www.aiga.org/history-timeline. “Typographic Art Group Sponsors Two Exhibits.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 16, 1956.
esigners beyond Chicago and the Midwest, and its leadership began to include a mix of local and national board members. In 1989, as a result of this growth and enlarged geographic focus, STA changed its name to the American Center of Design (ACD). The organization continued to focus on design education and the elevation of public taste in graphic design, in addition to addressing the relationship of design and business through conferences, publications, seminars, and other programs. ACD was particularly concerned with new technologies, research, and ideas affecting the design profession. It explored these topics at its “100 Show,” a national curated design competition organized annually; through essays and criticism published in its design journals, including “Design Year in Review” and “People, Not Markets,” and in its “Quarterly Practice” newsletter; and at its “Annual Surfaces” conferences for professionals from the design and business sectors, the first of which was held in November of 1993. ACD also offered an annual conference every spring from 1991 to 1996 for students of design. These involved portfolio reviews and presentations by professionals in the field. ACD’s 1995 publication Interact included a CD-ROM with integrated content, demonstrating the organization’s interest in exploring new modes of interaction between print and digital design. ACD was recognized among I.D. (The International Design Magazine)’s inaugural “I.D. Forty” issue in 1993. Its editors highlighted the organization’s commitment to “generating debate about the focus, values, and judgments instrumental to the future of good design” and described ACD as “a rare resource of information” for designers. As ACD’s national visibility grew, it lost its local footing, membership among Chicago designers waned, and its financial future became tenuous. These difficulties were compounded as a growing number of new organizations and programs devoted to graphic design began to take hold in both business and design and as AIGA reestablished its regional chapters in cities like Chicago. ACD could not sustain itself in this environment and was liquidated by its board in April 2002. An ad-hoc group of former STA members based in Chicago continued to meet independently after the formation of the American Center for Design. This group committed themselves to securing Chicago’s graphic design history through conferences like Chicago by Design, organized by Jack Weiss and George Thompson in 1999, which assessed the holdings of design archives in Chicago, including those at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago Historical Society (now the Chicago History Museum), the Newberry Library, and Northwestern University. STA formally organized as a new, separate organization in 1999 and continues its activities today.
“American Center for Design’s ‘Interact’ CD-ROM.” I.D. 42, no. 4 (August 1, 1995): 91. American Center for Design Records, 1927–1944, Chicago History Museum Research Center. Blauvelt, Andrew. “Calling for the New Imagists.” Eye 5, no. 17 (June 1, 1995): 84. Comberg, David. “Living Surfaces.” I.D. 43, no. 1 (February 1996): 90–91. Coupland, Ken. “The 100 Show: The Sixteenth Annual of the American Center for Design.” Graphis 50, no. 294 (December 1, 1994): 22. Coupland, Ken. “The 100 Show: The Nineteenth Annual of the American Center for Design.” Graphis 56, no. 328 (September 1, 2000): 12. Coyne, Patrick. “The ACD Conference on Interactive Media.” Communication Arts 36, no. 8 (February 1, 1995): 135–140. Daniels, Mary. Graphic Display. Chicago Tribune, February 9, 1992. “Design Student Grant, Miwa Wang, Institute of Design.” Statements 6, no. 3 (March 1991): 31. Dewey, Rob. The Society of Typographic Arts: A Seventy-five Year History. Edited by Jack Weiss. Chicago: The Society of Typographic Arts, 2002. Ehrenberg, Jennifer. “A Cold Eye: Dues and Don’ts.” Print 53, no. 3 (May/June 1999): 16–17. “Furthering the Faith: American Center for Design.” I.D. 1 (February 1993): 46. Hanson, Cynthia. “Taking a Wipe at Art.” Chicago Tribune, December 6, 1992. Heller, Steven. “Katherine McCoy, Educator, Designer, Writer.” Print 52, no. 4 (September 1998): 38. “Honorary Member Bill Moggridge.” Design Statements 9, no. 2 (June 1, 1994): 19. Kouri, Charles. “In a Changing World.” Statements 6, no. 2 (December 1, 1991): 18. “Living Surfaces.” I.D. 48, no. 5 (August 1, 2001): 78. Margolin, Victor. “Design History in the United States, 1977–2000.” The Politics of the Artificial: Essays on Design and Design Studies. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2002. McMillan, Sam. “Report from ACD: Design for the Internet.” Communication Arts 38, no. 8 (February 1, 1997): 131–136. Middleton, R. Hunter. “Twenty-five Years of STA History.” Print, March 1953. Mirapaul, Matthew. “Designing the Invisible Computer.” New York Times, October 28, 1999. Parker, Robert A. “Design: A Strategic Partnership with Business.” Communication Arts 35, no. 1 (April 1993): 28–32. Pratt, Steven. “Designer Cookbook Draws Upon Menus with Style.” Chicago Tribune, January 5, 1995. Society of Typographic Arts Records, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago. Spreenberg, Peter. “Designing a Multimedia Publication: American Center for Design Interact Journal.” CHI '95 Conference Companion on Human Factors in Computing Systems (May 1995): 89–90. Stangenes, Sharon, “50 Years of Logo-Motion.” Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1991. Steyer-Coyn, Stephanie. “The ACD Conference: Design for the Internet.” Communication Arts 37, no. 8 (January 1, 1996): 137. The Chicago Design Archive. “American Center for Design.” https://chicagodesignarchive.org/client/american-center-design. “The New Imagist: Expert without Qualities.” Statements: American Center for Design 11, no. 2 (1996): 8–12. “The Two McCoys: Collage and Montage: A Renowned Husband and Wife Team Talk about Design and the Elements of Blending.” Chicago Tribune, April 9, 1995. Tomcik, Andrew. “Graphic Design Triptypch.” Azure: Design Architecture & Art 9, no. 83 (September 1, 1992): 16.
Built in 1924, the American Furniture Mart was a leader in home furnishings and innovative marketing in Chicago. Providing record square footage for the display of furniture manufactured by hundreds of factories from across the nation, the American Furniture Mart facilitated connections between producers, retailers, and consumers. By offering a space dedicated to the meeting of manufacturers, distributors, and clients, the American Furniture Mart bridged the gap between offer and demand that had arisen in an economy increasingly based on mass production. Designed by architects George C. Nimmons (1865–1947), Max Dunning (1873–1945), and Henry Raeder (d. 1943), the American Furniture Mart building reached a height of seventeen stories and was celebrated as the largest building in world at the time its completion. (Consisting of two parts, the east end of the building was constructed in 1924 and the west end in 1926.) Strategically built on a prestigious lakefront lot in downtown Chicago, the American Furniture Mart at 666 Lake Shore Drive offered two million square feet of modern exhibition spaces enclosed in a Gothic-inspired shell. The American Furniture Mart was created exclusively for members of home furnishings businesses and prohibited the public from admission. Its grandiose scale and lavish ornamentation not only expressed the prominence of Chicago in the furniture industry, but also the centrality of Chicago within a national network of design and manufacturing. The sumptuous interiors of the Furniture Club of America attracted leaders in the furniture industry, and its restaurant provided members with a convenient place to hold business meetings. The American Exposition Palace, also located at 666 Lake Shore Drive, hosted fairs and expositions organized for wholesale buyers. Chicago gradually experienced a downturn in its dominance in the furniture industry, in part due to internal competition, such as the completion of the Chicago Merchandise Mart in 1931. Furniture production also declined during World War II, when the United States government prioritized military needs and issued restrictions on the use of lumber by civilians. The activities of the American Furniture Mart ended in 1979. Since then, the building was converted into residential condominiums and offices. In 1988, it was renamed Lake Shore Place and issued a new address, 680 North Lake Shore Drive.
“Am. Furniture Mart Obtains 333 Building: Control Gained by Stock Purchase.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 23, 1954. “American Furniture Mart Reorganization Approved by Court.” Chicago Daily Tribune, July 19, 1935. “American Furniture Mart—‘World’s Largest Building.’” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 8, 1925. “Attendance Up in Chicago: More Buyers at Furniture Mart Than Year Ago—Buying Brisk Furniture Stores to Expand Buying.” New York Times, July 13, 1949. Chase, Al. “Furniture Mart Will Be World’s Largest Building.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 3, 1923. Chase, Al. “Furniture Mart Site Is Changed to Shore Drive.” Chicago Daily Tribune, December 15, 1922. “Chicago Housefurnishing Exposition.” Crockery & Glass Journal 100, no. 24 (June 11, 1925): 19. “Chicago’s Furniture Mart, $10,000,000 Building, Bombed.” New York Times, December 9, 1930. Darling, Sharon. Chicago Furniture: Art, Craft & Industry 1833–1983. Chicago and New York: The Chicago Historical Society in association with W.W. Norton & Company, 1984. Diesenhouse, Susan. “New 15-Year Lease Keeps Playboy Based in Chicago.” Chicago Tribune, August 23, 2006. Dombrowski, Louis. “Chicago Industries: Wind City Dynamic Leader in Home Furnishing Field.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 29, 1961. Douglas, Anne. “Furnishings Mart Yields Many an Interesting Item.” Chicago Tribune, June 24, 1972. Douglas, Anne. “Summer Furniture Plays Bigger Year ‘Round Role.” Chicago Daily Tribune, October 20, 1957. “Exhibitor’s List for Mart Given.” Furniture Manufacturer and Artisan 86, no. 2 (August 1, 1922): 62. “Files Furniture Plan: Chicago Mart Would Reorganize Under Bankruptcy Act.” New York Times, April 3, 1935. Fuller, Ernest. “Famous Chicago Buildings: MART.” Chicago Daily Tribune, February 28, 1959. “Furnishings Sales Set New All-Time Peak.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 23, 1951. “Furniture Mart to Be Built: Building Project for Chicago Is Assured—Work to Begin June 15 and Building Completed in May 1923.” Furniture Manufacturer and Artisan 23, no. 5 (May 1, 1922): 175. “Furniture Mart to Observe 25th Birthday at July Show.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 14, 1949. “Furniture Shows Open: Record Number of Buyers Attend at Chicago’s Marts.” New York Times, July 7, 1936. “Furniture Trade Flocks to Chicago: 43,000 Buyers and Sellers Expected at 2-Week Show Opening There Today.” New York Times, January 9, 1956. Gantz, Carroll. Founders of American Industrial Design. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2014. Goodenough, Louis. “Home Goods Market Opens to Cautious Buying: Buyers Continue Demand for Lower Prices, Better Quality and Design—Few Allocations Needed.” Women’s Wear Daily 78, no. 2 (January 4, 1949): 2. Heise, Kenan. “Irving Rosenberg, 89; Owned Furniture Firm.” Chicago Tribune, October 24, 1986. “Home Goods Market Off to Brisk Start: Thousands Crown Chicago Opening.” Women’s Wear Daily 92, no. 6 (January 10, 1956): 1. Ibata, David. “Mart Gets New Name, Address, Outlook.” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 3, 1988. “Illinois Ready to Tell World Why It Prospers.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 23, 1924. Jentz, John B. “Furniture.” In Encyclopedia of Chicago, edited by James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff, 49. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. Johnson, Abbey. “Trends in Furniture Styles Analyzed by Top Designers.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 26, 1960. Knoch, Joanne. “Furniture Industry Polishes Its Display.” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 3, 1963. Korom, Joseph J. The American Skyscraper, 1850–1940: A Celebration of Height. Boston: Branden Books, 2008. Lewis, Caroline. “The Home Furnishings Show: What Does It Mean to You Homemakers?” Chicago Tribune, June 9, 1963. Markoutsas, Elaine. “Playboy Goes for Classic Lines.” Crain’s Chicago Business 13, no. 14 (April 2, 1990): 20. McLennon, C.M. America’s Greatest Furniture Mart. Chicago: Wells Company, 1925. “New Plastic Chair Made to Fit Body.” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 19, 1948. “‘New World Kitchen’ Is Introduced by G.E.” New York Times, January 4, 1951. Pulos, Arthur J. The American Design Adventure, 1940–1975. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1990. “Registration for American Furniture Mart Breaks All Records.” Crockery & Glass Journal 103, no. 2 (July 15, 1926): 23. “Reports Rise in Furniture Growth Plan.” Chicago Daily Tribune, June 24, 1958. “Retail Furniture Reported on Rise: Home Goods Industry Survey Finds Refills Difficult for Some Merchants.” New York Times, September 14, 1949. “Retailers Shop as Home Goods Markets Open: Initial Activity Light at Chicago and Grand Rapids, with Optimism Shown on Future Business.” Women’s Wear Daily 82, no. 119 (June 19, 1951): 10. Scranton, Philip. Endless Novelty: Specialty Production and American Industrialization, 1865–1925. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997. Scranton, Philip. “Multiple Industrializations: Urban Manufacturing Development in the American Mid-West, 1880–1925.” Journal of Design History 12, no.1 (1999): 45–63. Sherlock, Barbara. “Thomas J. Lyman, 83; Leasing Executive Filled Furniture Mart Showrooms.” Chicago Tribune, May 5, 2005. Smythe, J.H. “The Chicago Market: American Furniture Mart.” Crockery & Glass Journal 104, no. 26 (June 30, 1927): 18. “Stetson China Company Makes Marked Progress: Chicago Concern Has Grown from Small Business with Five Employees to Large Manufacturing Organization Employing Eighty-Five People—Recently Opened Showroom in American Furniture Mart.” Crockery & Glass Journal 104, no. 1 (January 6, 1927): 13. Taylor, Lynn. “Home Furniture Market Begins.” Chicago Tribune, June 15, 1969. “Vaughn Lee Alward: Retired President of American Furniture Mart Was 65.” New York Times, July 6, 1938. Weigle, Edith. “Furniture Show Defines Spring Styles: Manufacturers’ Exhibit at American Furniture Mart Will Give Advance News to Retail Buyers.” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 3, 1932. “William H. Wilson Dies in Virginia: Official American Furniture Mart Was on Business Trip Began Work at 16.” New York Times, April 19, 1935.
Armour & Co., a meatpacking business, was established as Plankinton, Armour & Co. by John Plankinton (1820–1891) and Philip Danforth Armour (1832–1901) in 1863. Initially based in Milwaukee, the company saw tremendous growth during the American Civil War and went on to open branches in Chicago and Kansas City. Philip Armour relocated to Chicago in 1875 to manage the company’s office there, and Plankinton left the business in 1884. The Armour family assumed full responsibility for the company thereafter, with Jonathan Ogden Armour, Philip’s son, assuming leadership in 1901. Armour & Co. became one of the largest meatpacking businesses in the United States and, along with similar companies founded by George Hammond and Gustavus Swift, helped secure Chicago’s reputation as what poet Carl Sandberg called the “Hog Butcher for the World.” Packinghouses situated on the banks of the Chicago River and major railway expansions such as the development of the Union Stockyards in 1860 allowed for the easy importation of surplus livestock from midwestern farms into Chicago and the subsequent distribution of processed meats to consumers around the country. Twelve million cows and pigs passed through the Union Stockyards in 1890 alone. Historically, the production calendar of the meatpacking industry was dictated by the seasons, with meat processing and transportation occurring primarily in the cold, winter months to avoid spoilage. Technological advances in refrigeration enabled unprecedented year-round operations, and ice-chilled railcars allowed for the shipment of raw, dressed meats over long distances. Armour & Co. gained a competitive edge because it streamlined the meatpacking process, innovating steam hoists used to lift and move cow and pig carcasses and envisioning new purposes for meatpacking byproducts. The company worked with scientists to develop industrial and consumer goods from the non-comestible parts of the animals it processed. Bones and hides were either sold or used to make gelatin, leather goods, hair and paint brushes, candles and soaps, glue, fertilizer, glycerin, an inexpensive alternative to butter called oleomargarine, and ammonia. Armour envisioned the packing house of the future as a site that might eventually “include a tannery, a boot and show factory, a cloth mill and a mammoth tailor shop.” Efficiency was key to Armour & Co.’s success, as was its reliance on the underpaid, unregulated labor of immigrant communities in Chicago. Armour & Co. and other Chicago packing houses were the sites of significant labor organization at the turn of the century. Workers organized strikes in support of an eight-hour workday and wage increases, and the social reformer Jane Addams met with J. Ogden Armour in 1904 to advocate for the city’s packinghouse laborers. Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (1906), which was based on interviews with laborers, representatives from Chicago’s settlement houses, and health inspectors, as well as his firsthand observations of slaughterhouses around the Union Stockyards, presented a damning view of the harsh working conditions and lack of sanitation standards in the industry. The book resulted in the passage of the Meat Inspection Act in 1906, which imposed new regulations and quality controls on meat packers. Armour & Co. accumulated great wealth as a result of the company’s business practices, and the Armour family supported many philanthropic causes in the city. Inspired by the sermons of Reverend Frank Wakely Gunsaulas, a minister at the Plymouth Congregational Church on the South Side, Philip D. Armour Sr. established the Armour Institute in 1886. The school offered vocational training for members of the working class with the goal of developing a skilled workforce that would propel industrial expansion. The school eventually merged with Lewis Institute, a trade school serving immigrant populations, to become the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1940. German architect Mies van der Rohe was recruited to head the architecture department of the Armour Institute two years before the merger of the two schools. Along with Ludwig Hilberseimer and Walter Peterhans, colleagues from the German Bauhaus, Mies introduced a modernist design curriculum with a focus on drawing, construction methods, and the careful study of materials. Mies conceived of a comprehensive master plan for the Armour Institute and designed many of the buildings on its campus located in the Bronzeville neighborhood. In 1949, the Institute of Design, the design school founded by László Moholy-Nagy, another Bauhaus émigré, merged with IIT. Beyond its industrial innovations, Armour & Co. helped lay the foundation for an important chapter in Chicago’s design history as a supporter of what would become one of the city’s most storied architecture and design schools.
Barrett, James R. Work and Community in the Jungle: Chicago’s Packinghouse Workers, 1894–1922. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987. Brody, David. The Butcher Workmen: A Study of Unionization. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1964. Halpern, Rick. Down on the Killing Floor: Black and White Workers in Chicago’s Packinghouses, 1904–54. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Hautzinger, Daniel. “When Chicago Was ‘Hog Butcher to the World.’” WTTW, June 21, 2018. https://interactive.wttw.com/playlist/2018/06/21/union-stock-yards. Hughes, Bob. “A Shelter for Artistic Young Ladies Makes Its Debut in 1912.” Chicago Tribune, March 2, 1986. Janega, James. “Meatpacking.” Chicago Tribune, August 8, 2014. https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/blue-sky/chi-meatpacking-top-chicago -innovations-bsi-series-story.html “Mob of 4,000 Men Charges Police: Most Serious Riot of the Packing House Strike Occurs Near West Stockyard Gates.” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 19, 1904. Pacyga, Dominic A. Slaughterhouse: Chicago’s Union Stock Yard and the World It Made. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. “Philip D. Armour, Jr., Dead: Younger Son of Chicago’s Millionaire Parker Stricken with Congestion of the Lungs in California.” New York Times, January 28, 1900. Potempa, Philip. “La Lumiere School Includes Armour Meats Connection.” Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2017. “Rejected Armour Meat: So Calvary on the March Had to Do Without It.” New York Times, July 24, 1906. Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the Year 1863. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1863. Sandberg, Carl. “Chicago.” Poetry: A Magazine of Verse 3, no. 6 (March 1914): 191. Schulze, Franz. Illinois Institute of Technology: The Campus Guide. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. Seigel, Jessica. “Meat-Packing Town’s Heyday Has Come and Gone, but Strong Flavor Remains.” Chicago Tribune, July 27, 1990. Skaggs, Jimmy M. Prime Cut: Livestock Raising and Meatpacking in the United States, 1607–1983. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1986. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Armour’s Food Source Map: The Greatness of the United States Is Founded on Agriculture.” American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection. https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/1967. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. “Nation’s Ever-Growing Food Problem Has Been Met by Packing Industry.” American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection. https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/1968. Wade, Louise C. Chicago’s Pride: The Stockyards, Packingtown, and Environs in the 19th Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987. Wade, Louise Carroll. “Meatpacking.” Encyclopedia of Chicago. http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/804.html Washington, Jewell. “John Culloton, Chicago.” Chicago Tribune, April 14, 2012. Wisconsin Historical Society. “Armour, Philip Danforth 1832–1901.” Dictionary of Wisconsin History. https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS1650. Wisconsin Historical Society. “Historical Essay: Plankinton, John (1820–1891).” https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS4410. Winship, A. E. “The Meat Industry.” The Journal of Education 48, no. 1 (1185) (June 30, 1898): 22–24.
Armour Institute/Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)
The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) is Ph.D.-granting private university in Chicago with programs in engineering, architecture, design, science, human sciences, applied technology, business, and law. One of the largest of its kind in the nation, IIT formed in 1940 with the merging of two technical schools: the Armour Institute, established in 1893 on the South Side by meat-packing industrialist Paul Danforth Armour, Sr. (1832–1901), and the Lewis Institute, a high school and junior college founded in 1895 from the estate of Allen Cleveland Lewis (1821–1877). Sharing complementary pedagogies, the consolidated institutes offered a professional education based on science, engineering, management, and the humanities. Other incorporations followed as IIT expanded the scope of its research and educational programs. The Institute of Design joined IIT in 1949 and the Chicago-Kent College of Law in 1969. Historically characterized by its active relationships with industries and businesses in Chicago, IIT is home to research centers such as the Nation Center for Food Safety and Technology and the IIT Research Institute. The IIT Main Campus is renowned worldwide for its modernist architecture. German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) joined IIT as its first Director of Architecture in 1938 after the closure of the Bauhaus in Weimar by the Nazi regime. During his two-decade tenure at IIT, Mies not only reshaped the curriculum, leading to the reputation of IIT as “the New Bauhaus,” he also orchestrated the master plan of the campus. Envisioned by Mies as an icon of modernity, the IIT Main Campus was entirely reconceived and expanded in the 1940s and 1950s. Laid out following a uniform module determining the size and articulation of each building in relation to one another, the IIT campus was designed to embody rationality, clarity, and economy. Mies’s twenty-two buildings for IIT find their stylistic zenith in the aptly named S.R. Crown Hall (1956) which houses the College of Architecture, Planning, and Design. Conceptually groundbreaking, the building is characterized by its innovative exposed steel structure and its clear-span, column-less interior. S.R. Crown Hall received a National Historic Landmark status in 2001. Additionally, the campus features the Galvin Library (1962), Arthur Keating Hall (1966), and Hermann Hall (1961) by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and the McCormick Tribune Campus Center (2003) by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.
50 Years Bauhaus: Additions on the Occasion of the Exhibition at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois, 1969. Stuttgart: Wüttembergischer Kunstverein, 1969. Applebaum, Wilburn. “Illinois Institute of Technology.” In Encyclopedia of Chicago, edited by James R. Grossman, Ann Durkin Keating, and Janice L. Reiff, 49. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004. “Armour Gives $1,000,000: Mrs. P.D. Armour Joins Her Son in Gift to the Armour Institute.” New York Times, April 11, 1901. “Armour Institute.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 29, 1909. Armour Institute of Technology Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago. Armour Institute of Technology Grade Books, 1985–1908, Paul V. Galvin Library, University Archives and Special Collections, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Armour Institute of Technology Records, Paul V. Galvin Library, University Archives and Special Collections, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Armour War Training Records, 1896–1931, Paul V. Galvin Library, University Archives and Special Collections, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Beeby, Thomas H. “Toward a Technological Architecture? Case Study of the Illinois Institute of Technology Commons Building.” Perspecta 31 (2000): 10–21. Blaser, Werner. Mies van der Rohe: IIT Campus, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Basel: Birkhäuser, 2002. Bluestone, Daniel. “Chicago’s Mecca Flat Blues.” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 57, no. 4 (1998): 382–403. Channick, Robert. “Oldest Building at IIT Sold, To Be Apartments: Redevelopment Will Have to Clear Historic Hurdles.” Chicago Tribune, February 1, 2017. Domer, Dennis. “Walter Peterhans and Visual Training at Illinois Institute of Technology.” Structurist no. 31–32 (January 1992): 44–51. Eisenman Architects. “Campus Center.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 38–43. Grubiak, Margaret M. “Educating the Moral Scientist: The Chapels at I.I.T. and M.I.T.” Arris: Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians 18 (January 2007): 1–14. Hadid, Zaha. “Campus Center.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 32–37. Harrington, Kevin. “S. R. Crown Hall.” In AIA Guide to Chicago, edited by Alice Sinkevitch, 387–390. Orlando: Harcourt Original, 2004. Henry T. Heald, Armour Institute Dean’s Records, 1920–1930, Paul V. Galvin Library, University Archives and Special Collections, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Hull, Mary. “The Home: Home—What Is It?” The Interior 26, no. 1295 (March 21, 1895): 407. Jones, Wes. “Mies-takes.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 36–41. Koolhaas, Rem. “Campus Center.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 14–19. Lambert, Phyllis. “Mie’s Student Union.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 52–53. Levin, Miriam R., et. al. Urban Modernity: Cultural Innovation in the Second Industrial Revolution. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2010. Lewis Institute Records, Paul V. Galvin Library, University Archives and Special Collections, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Lowrey, Jeannette. “Illinois Institute of Technology.” The Scientific Monthly 65, no. 6 (December 1947): 456–460. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Collection, Ryerson and Burnham Archives, The Art Institute of Chicago. Macauley, Irene. The Heritage of the Illinois Institute of Technology. Chicago: Illinois Institute of Technology, 1978. Mayer, Harold M. and Wade, Richard C. Chicago: Growth of a Metropolis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969. Mertins, Detlef. “Design After Mies.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 14–19. Mitchell, Ed. “This Is Only a Test.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 28–35. “New Leadership at Illinois Tech.” Chicago Daily Tribune, May 22, 1952. Rice, Charles. “The Atmosphere of Interior Urbanism: OMA at IIT.” Architectural Design 78, no. 3 (May 2008): 88–91. Schulze, Franz. Illinois Institute of Technology: The Campus Guide: An Architectural Tour. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005. Sejima, Kazuyo and Ryue Nishizawa. “Campus Center.” Special issue, ANY: Architecture New York 24 (1999): 26–31. Somol, R.E. “Five Easy Mieses.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 20–27. Speaks, Michael. “The Singularity of OMA.” ANY: Architecture New York 24 (January 1999): 44–47. “Story of Armour Institute: School Established from Inspiration Contained in Sermon of Dr. Gunsaulus.” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 7, 1901. “The Armour Institute.” Manufacturer and Builder: A Practical Journal of Industrial Progress 25, no. 10 (October 1, 1893): 237. “The Armour Institute.” The Interior 23, no. 1178 (December 22, 1892): 3. Vinci, John. “Mies’ IIT Commons Building and Rem Koolhaas.” Structurist 41–42 (January 2001): 104–208.
Perplexingly, apart from a briefarticlethat appeared in the March 1953 issueofPrint magazinesixty-three years ago, littledocumentationexistson the history and activities of the Art DirectorsClub of Chicago(ADCC). The article“European Influences on Chicago Designers,”written by graphic designer and ADCC member George McVicker (1904–1990)for a special Society of Typographical Arts (STA)issue, offersno genealogy of the group. Based on the numbering of the ADCC Annuals, the foundingof the organizationmay be placed at 1932 or 1933, althoughthe “first”annualmay not havecoincided withtheir first year of existence. (For reference, the New York Art DirectorsClubwas founded in 1920.) According to McVicker, inthe fall of 1934, the group sponsoreda course taught by much-admired Viennese designer Joseph Binder, known to ADCC membership through European publications. The well-attendedcourse made an enormous impact on participants, who were unfamiliar with Binder’s approach to stylizing and “abstract symbol” making. However, Binder’s influence was nothingcompared to that of László Moholy-Nagy(1895–1946)—called by McVicker “the real bomb [that] hit town.”1Four years after Binder’s course, Moholy-Nagy was brought to Chicago by the local Association of Art and Industry, which includedthe Container Corporationof America, Montgomery Ward, Marshall Field,and R.R. Donnelley representatives. Moholy-Nagy and his “first lieutenant”Gyorgy Kepes(1906–2001) not only introducednewmethods and design principles butalso acquainted Chicagoans with a vocabulary thatredefined design thinking and designproblems, using phrases such as “articulation of space” and “interpenetration of planes.” McVicker mentions the following namesin his Print article; they arepresumably ADCC members. Their names arepresented here in alphabetical order: Franz Altschuler Frank Barr Bruce Beck Francis Chase Burton Cherry DeKovic-Smith Design Organization Gene Douglas Cliffe D. Eitel Stan Ekman William Fleming Fran and Ros Foley Morton Goldsholl M. Martin Johnson Elsa Kula Anne Edwards Lang Dale Maxey Everett McNear Phoebe Moore Dale Nichols Herbert Pinzke Bert Ray Harry B. Smith, Jr. Irving Tittel Harold Walter
McVicker, George. “European Influence on Chicago Designers,”Print:Magazineof the Graphic Arts7,no. 5 (March 1953): 26–33.