Dedication of the Ferguson Fountain of the Great Lakes : Chicago, September 9, 1913 : Benjamin F. Ferguson, donor, Lorado Taft, sculptor

EXERCISES AT THE DEDICATION
OF THE FERGUSON FOUNTAIN
im OF THE GREAT LAKES ^
CHICAGO, SEPTEMBER 9, 1913

DEDICATION OF

THE FERGUSON FOUNTAIN OF

THE GREAT LAKES

CHICAGO
SEPTEMBER 9, 1913

BENJAMIN F. FERGUSON, DONOR
LORADO TAFT, SCULPTOR

TRUSTEES OF THE B. F. FERGUSON
FUND, 1913-14

Being the Board of Trustees of the Art
Institute of Chicago

EDWARD E. AYER
ADOLPHUS C. BARTLETT
JOHN C. BLACK
CHAUNCEY J. BLAIR
EDWARD B. BUTLER
CLYDE M. CARR
WALLACE L. DE WOLF
HENRY H. GETTY
JOHN J. GLESSNER
WILLIAM O. GOODMAN

FRANK W. GUNSAULUS
CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON
BRYAN LATHROP
FRANK G. LOGAN
R. HALL McCORMICK
JOHN J. MITCHELL
SAMUEL M. NICKERSON
HONORE PALMER
MARTIN A. RYERSON
HOWARD SHAW

ALBERT A. SPRAGUE

Ex-Officio

CARTER H. HARRISON

Mayor
JOHN E. TRAEGER,

Comptroller

JOHN BARTON PAYNE,

President South Park Commissioners

JOSEPH DONNERSBERGER,

Auditor South Park Commissioners

OFFICERS

CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON President

MARTIN A. RYERSON \ v- Presidenta

FRANK G. LOGAN /

ERNEST A. HAMILL Treasurer

WILLIAM M. R. FRENCH Director

WILLIAM A. ANGELL Auditor

NEWTON H. CARPENTER Secretary

WILLIAM F. TUTTLE Assistant Secretary

INTRODUCTORY

INTRODUCTORY

Benjamin Franklin Ferguson, an old and
respected business man of Chicago, died
April 10, 1905. By Ms will, after providing
certain small bequests to relatives, lie com-
mitted to the Northern Trust Company, a
corporation existing by virtue of the laws of
the State of Illinois, all his estate, real, per-
sonal, and mixed, in trust, for certain uses
and purposes described as follows :

The Trustee is to reduce all of the estate
(except a certain piece of real estate be-
queathed to a relative) to first-class mort-
gages and bonds. If the estate falls below
one million dollars, the income is to be ac-
cumulated to that amount; provided that
certain annuities to relatives and cemetery
associations (amounting to seven thousand
three hundred dollars annually) shall in any
case be regularly paid. Four other annuities
of one thousand dollars each to publi c institu-
tions, one of them the Art Institute, are pro-
vided, when the estate reaches one million
dollars.

The Trustee, after accumulating the es-
tate to one million dollars and setting aside

7

8 Introduction

the above annuities and the Trustee's com-
pensation not exceeding one-half of one per
cent, shall pay the entire net income annu-
ally or oftener "to the Art Institute of
Chicago, to be known as the B. F. Ferguson
Fund, and entirely and exclusively expended
by it under the direction of its Board of
Trustees in the erection and maintenance
of enduring statuary and monuments, in the
whole or in part of stone, granite or bronze,
in the parks, along the boulevards or in other
public places, within the city of Chicago,
Illinois, commemorating worthy men or
women of America or important events of
American history. The plans or designs for
such statuary or monuments and the loca-
tion of the same shall be determined by the
Board of Trustees of such Institute. "

THE B. F. FERGUSON FUND

The Trustees of the Art Institute of Chi-
cago are Trustees of the income of the Fer-
guson sculpture fund. The only completed
monument thus far erected is the Ferguson
Fountain of the Great Lakes, south of the
Art Institute.

A monument commemorative of the ad-
mission of Illinois to the Union in 1818, by

Introduction 9

Henry Bacon, architect, to be erected on the
West Side, is under consideration.

Mr. Lorado Taft has been commissioned
to prepare full-size models of his proposed
Fountain of Time to be erected upon the Mid-
way. Mr. Taft has been authorized at a fixed
price to model the fountain in plaster, ready
to be cut in marble, the preparatory models
to be completed within five years. There
is an accumulation of the fund now in the
hands of the Trustees, more than sufficient
for all obligations incurred. The Trustees,
therefore, are not precluded from under-
taking other works during the coming years.

The B. F. Ferguson Fund at present
exceeds a million dollars. It is subject to
certain charges for annuities, taxes, and cost
of administration, and the annual income ap-
plicable to sculpture is somewhat less than
thirty thousand dollars.

BIOGRAPHICAL

BIOGRAPHICAL

Benjamin Franklin Ferguson was born at
Columbia, Pa., in 1839, and was educated
in the public schools there, finishing with a
course in the Millersville Normal School.
At the age of seventeen he went into his
father's lumber yard at Columbia, and con-
tinued there three years, when he went to
New York, and was engaged for a time in
an auctioneering business with Robinson,
Scott & Co. In 1861 he joined the Union
Army, and was stationed at Alexandria,
Va., in charge of the hay department of that
section. It does not appear that he was an en-
listed soldier ; he may have been connected
with the Quartermaster's department. In
1865 he came to Chicago, and again engaged
in the lumber business, in the employ of the
late Jesse Spalding. Later he became the
Chicago manager of R. Schulenberg of St.
Louis in a similar business. In 1867 he
went into business for himself, and was con-
nected successively with the firms of E.
Little & Co., Ferguson & Auten, and the
South Branch Lumber Company. In this
last company Mr. Ferguson was associated

IS

14 Biographical

with Jacob and Francis Beidler, and the
business, with large yards at Chicago and at
Tonawanda, N. Y., became very flourishing
and extensive. Mr. Ferguson extended his
activities to the southern part of the coun-
try, and was President of the Santee Eiver
Cypress Lumber Company in South Caro-
lina. He was a plain business man, self-
reliant and especially distinguished for his
skill in buying.

In 1866 he was married to Myra Finney
of Cedar River, Michigan, who died about
1898. There were no children of the mar-
riage.

During the last ten or twelve years of his
life, from about 1893, Mr. Ferguson partly
withdrew himself from the cares of business,
and sought recreation in travel in the United
States and abroad. He had a cottage at
Buzzard's Bay, Mass., near Wareham, and
it is said that he spent there his happiest
days, cruising on the bay, reading in his
library, or walking with his dogs. He was
a contributor in a quiet way to the charities
of the city, and he was a subscriber to the
statue of Washington, which stands at the
Grand Boulevard entrance to Washington
Park. He died in Chicago, April 10, 1905.

Biographical 15

It is said that when traveling in Europe
Mr. Ferguson was much impressed with the
decoration of foreign cities with statues and
monuments, and upon his return to Chicago
was much impressed with the destitution of
similar adornments here.

• • • .ti '.-•• .- I jj ~ 'r~ o ' - rrr j r

THE FERGUSON FOUNTAIN OF THE GREAT LAKES

EXERCISES OF DEDICATION OF THE

FERGUSON FOUNTAIN OF THE

GREAT LAKES

The dedication of the Ferguson Fountain
took place on Tuesday, September 9, 1913,
at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. The day was
beautiful. A thousand chairs were set in
the open air south of the Art Institute
facing the fountain, and a low platform
was provided for the speakers. An audi-
ence made up of Trustees and Members of
the Art Institute, friends of Mr. Ferguson
and of the sculptor, and other interested
spectators, overflowed the seats, and pre-
sented, with the moving throngs on Michi-
gan Avenue and the crowded windows of the
neighboring buildings, a lively and inspir-
ing spectacle. The exercises were opened by
prayer by Dr. F. W. Gunsaulus, after which
the programme was as follows :

Music by the Chicago Band

William Weil, Conductor

Coronation March from "The Prophet"
Meyerbeer

Overture— "Triumph" Suppe

19

20 Exercises of Dedication

ADDRESS BY THE SCULPTOR, MR. LORADO TAFT
Music

Fanfare from "Parsival" Wagner

THE PRESENTATION OP THE FOUNTAIN

Mr. Charles L. Hutchinson, President of

the Board of Trustees of the Art Institute

of Chicago
THE ACCEPTANCE OF THE FOUNTAIN

Mr. John Barton Payne, President of the

Board of South Park Commissioners
INTRODUCTION OF WATER TO THE FOUNTAIN
Music

Hallelujah Chorus from "The Messiah "
Handel

"The Star Spangled Banner. "

The full recognition of the sculptor was a
pleasant and rather unusual feature of the
occasion. In his address Mr. Taf t said that
the personification of the Great Lakes in
sculpture was suggested by D. H. Burnham,
the architect. Mr. Hutchinson called atten-
tion to the appropriateness of this subject as
a memorial of Mr. Ferguson, since the great
lakes were the scene of much of his busi-
ness activity. Judge Payne pointed out the
necessity of material prosperity among citi-
zens like Mr. Ferguson as the basis of great

Exercises of Dedication 21

works of art. At the pressure of a button
by the little daughter of the sculptor, the
water flowed in the fountain, pouring from
shell to shell held by the hands of the young
female draped figures representing the lakes.
On the great granite block back of the group
is a bas-relief portrait of Mr. Ferguson in
bronze between two bronze panels of laurel
branches, with the following inscription :

"Benjamin Franklin Ferguson be-
queathed in trust to the Trustees of the Art
Institute of Chicago a fund of one million
dollars to be known as the B. F. Ferguson
Monument Fund. The income derived from
the fund must be used for the erection and
maintenance of enduring statuary and monu-
ments in the parks, along the boulevards, or
in other public places within the city of Chi-
cago commemorating worthy men or women
of America or important events of her his-
tory. Anno Domini MCMXIII."

THE FERGUSON FOUNTAIN OF THE GREAT LAKES

Central Group

ADDRESS OF LORADO TAFT

SCULPTOR OF THE
FERGUSON FOUNTAIN

ADDRESS OP

LORADO TAFT

Mr. Taf t spoke as follows :

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : I
have been asked to say a few words on the
origin of this fountain, but before doing so
I wish to acknowledge here my indebted-
ness not only to the Trustees of the Fer-
guson fund, who have given me my oppor-
tunity, but to my long-time friend and co-
laborer, Jules Berchem, the founder, who
makes as good bronze castings right here in
Chicago as you can find in Paris or Munich ;
to the architects, Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge,
who have aided me so much, and especially
their representative, Mr. Puckey, indefatiga-
ble and omniscent in detail; and finally,
but never to be forgotten, my good friends
of the Municipal Art League who kept me
encouraged through so many wistful years,
assuring me that Chicago should have the
Fountain of the Great Lakes, if they had to
beg the money on the street corners.

It happened in this way: Almost twenty
years ago— I remember it was soon after
the World's Fair— I was on my way, one

25

26 Address — Lorado Taft

evening, to Evanston, and chanced to sit
beside Mr. Burnham. We were talking of
the triumphs of that most beautiful of all
expositions, and Mr. Burnham criticised
gently the lack of initiative of our sculptors,
remarking that he was sorry that none of
us had thought to make a fountain personi-
fying the Great Lakes. I recognized at once
the beauty of the suggestion and felt appro-
priately ashamed that none of us should
have thought of it. Later I made the sketch
which has developed in the course of years
into the group before you.

There was a long dreary period after the
World's Fair, a hopeless eternity of depres-
sion and longing illumined only now and
then by the ghoulish hope of a death-mask
of a prominent citizen and a possible bust.
It came over me gradually that the coy
attitude of our artists, like a girl waiting to
be proposed to, was not a success. That
while our public needed sculpture, it did not
know it and never would guess it unless
someone showed it what it wanted ! It was
high time to visualize some of those pent-up
emotions. But sculpture is an expensive
craft, like architecture in that respect,
and its most beautiful dreams are impotent

Address — Lorado Tafl 27

unless you can externalize them. By good
fortune I chanced to have at the same mo-
ment here in the Art Institute a large class
of young people eager for something to do.
We began to devise subjects for their united
efforts. One year we did the notorious
Nymph Fountain, which " astonished the
world" upon this very spot. The next year,
I think it was, five of my young sculptors
made from a sketch of mine the first model
of the ' ' Great Lakes. ' ' They were less than
life size, they were not very good and being
made separately they did not fit together
very well. But the people liked the idea and I
was encouraged to do them again. I did so,
this time doing the work entirely myself,
though at intervals between lecture trips,
and writing, and teaching, and " death-
masquerading. " It was a rather desperate
time, but there was a leit motif of hope run-
ning through those days and months. When
at last the group was finished and exhibited,
it found friends, and some never ceased to
work for it until the order was assured.
This first model was made in my little studio
in the Fine Arts Building, a space but little
wider than the group, so that I never saw
the ends of the composition from any dis-

28 Address — Lorado Tafl

tance. Upon receiving the definite order
from the Ferguson Committee I made the
group all over again, enlarging the figures
from seven and one-half feet to ten feet.

The motif of the group is not profound.
I have sometimes wondered if it were not
too obvious. "Lake Superior" on high and
"Lake Michigan" at the side both empty
into the basin of "Lake Huron," who sends
the waters on to "Lake Erie" whence "Lake
Ontario" receives them. As they escape
from her basin and hasten into the unknown,
she reaches wistfully after them as though
questioning whether she has been neglectful
of her charge. The exigencies of placing
have made her reach toward Saint Louis in-
stead of the Saint Lawrence, but you are
requested to overlook this solecism.

Some have thought that my personifica-
tions of the Lakes are, or should be Indians.
Naturally the idea suggested itself to me,
but was never seriously entertained, since
the Indian type of womanhood is hardly our
ideal, while a classic Diana in moccasins and
feathers, a prettified, characterless Indian,
is no longer acceptable in art. Back of this
however, is the feeling that these creatures
should be of no time nor race. They are

Address — Lorado Tafl 29

the Danaides of the new world whose im-
memorial task was solaced for a moment by
the canoes and camp fires of the red-skins.

But we are gathered here for another pur-
pose. We come to do honor to a good man,
a man of imagination and vision. I never
met Mr. Ferguson, but I wish that I had. I
remember what a thrill I felt when the sig-
nificance of his unprecedented benefaction
first dawned upon me. I felt that I should
have known Trim. I wanted to thank him
personally in the name of all Chicago, the
Chicago of to-day and of the many to-
morrows. And I would have thanked him
with still greater emotion in the name of Chi-
cago 's new school of sculptors, which this
bequest makes possible, the group of men
and women who will bring a fair fame to our
city as the direct result of this gift.

I mentioned this desire to a friend, who
remarked dryly that perhaps it was well that
I had not met Mr. Ferguson : if he had heard
my wild talk he might have changed his will
and left everything to an asylum or library.
But whether or no he foresaw the workers
as well as the work; whether the sculptors
and architects entered into his consciousness,
this remains to me the highest cause of en-

30 Address — Lorado Taft

thusiasm and gratitude, that artists are
growing up in our midst who shall win for
our city recognition in the world of beauty,
who shall crown our commercial life as was
crowned the commercial lif e of Athens and
Florence and Venice.

What Chicago lacks, what all our new
American cities so deplorably lack is a back-
ground. Our traditions are all before us.
Our homes, our streets, our lives are casual
We need something to give us a greater
solidarity— to put a soul into our com-
munity—to make us love this place above
all others. This Art alone can do. Jane
Addams has understood it when she wrote :

" . After all, what is the func-

tion of Art, but to preserve in permanent
and beautiful form those emotions and
solaces which cheer life and make it kindlier,
more heroic and easier to comprehend;
which lift the mind of the worker from the
harshness and loneliness of his task, and by
connecting him with what has gone before,
free him from a sense of the isolation and
hardship?"

Such is the value of monuments ; such is
the potency of this ancient, awfully perma-
nent art of sculpture. It bears its message
through the ages, reaching a hand in either

Address — Lorado Toft 31

direction, binding together as it were the
generations of men. On mouldering stone
and corroded bronze we read the aspirations
of a vanished race. In the same materials
we send our greetings to myriads of souls
unborn. There is elation in the thought. It
is immortality.

Gentlemen, shall I confess it? I have
looked upon your splendid citizenship with
admiration, sometimes not untouched with
envy. I have been jealous of your privilege
of doing splendid things for our Chicago.
Do you wonder then that it is with deep feel-
ing that I thank you and Mr. Ferguson for
permitting me to join you as a stockholder
in this community, a contributor in some
small way to its heritage ?

ADDRESS OF PRESENTATION BY

CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON

PRESIDENT OF THE TRUSTEES

OF THE FERGUSON FUND

THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO

Showing the Ferguson Fountain

ADDRESS OF

CHARLES L. HUTCHINSON

Mr. Hutchinson spoke as follows :

We are here to dedicate the Ferguson
Fountain of the Great Lakes, and to pre-
sent it in the name of B. F. Ferguson to the
citizens of Chicago. It is an important event
in the artistic development of our city. It
is also a notable event in our civic life, for
the noble example set by Mr. Ferguson ranks
with the generosity of his benefaction. We
see before us the first tangible illustration of
the wisdom of a loyal and devoted citizen.

This is but one of many monuments which
will in time be erected and add greatly to the
beauty of our city. They will give pleas-
ure and inspiration to thousands of our fel-
low citizens by recalling to memory great
Americans and events, notable in the history
of our country. Think of all that will be ac-
complished in the course of a hundred years
through the generosity of Mr. Ferguson. It
is difficult to conceive of the glory of it all,
made possible by his f arsighted benevolence.

Mr. Ferguson came to Chicago at the close
of the Civil War, and devoted himself to

35

36 Address — Charles L. Hutchinson

business. Its pursuits led Mm to and fro
upon the Great Lakes. He was well known
in all their lumber ports, and where he was
known he was always held in high esteem.
He spent many years of his life in traversing
the waters of Lake Superior, Lake Michi-
gan and Lake Huron. It is therefore highly
appropriate that the first monument to be
erected from the proceeds of the B. F. Fer-
guson Monument Fund, should be this Foun-
tain of the Great Lakes. It is gratifying to
the Trustees of The Art Institute to have one
of Mr. Ferguson's intimate friends write
that "no better selection could have been
made to commemorate the activities of the
donor, in his chosen business, the lumber
trade. Fitting it is that this field of his oper-
ation should be given expression in so unique
a manner. ' ' The trustees chosen by Mr. Fer-
guson, however, claim no credit for fore-
sight in the matter, since the selection of the
Fountain was one of those happy circum-
stances or unexpected coincidences, so ap-
propriate that men of faith sometimes call
them special providences.

We are fortunate in having among our
citizens a great artist, Mr. Lorado Taf t. For
several years he worked faithfully to give

Address — Charles L. Hutchinson 37

adequate expression to one of Ms noble con-
ceptions. The result of his thought and
labor was a model of this Fountain of the
Great Lakes. It was exhibited to the public
just at the time when the Trustees of Mr.
Ferguson were seeking a design for a monu-
ment to be erected in his memory and was
selected by them without hesitation. The
city is to be congratulated upon possessing
an artist capable of creating this beautiful
fountain, and at the same time a citizen so
generous and of such great vision as to en-
able the artist to put his ideas into perma-
nent form.

During his life among us, Mr. Ferguson
was a modest, unassuming citizen, devoting
most of his time to his business, but, as with
many other business men, his thoughts were
not all given to affairs of commercial life. He
was a dreamer of dreams. He had visions
of a City Beautiful and a strong desire to
aid in the upbuilding of such a city. He saw
that it was within his power to be of mate-
rial service in the building of such a city
here at home, and he resolved to act and to
act generously. He decided to devote prac-
tically his entire estate to the purpose in his
mind. It was to create a fund of at least

38 Address — Charles L. Hutchinson

one million dollars, the proceeds of which
should forever be devoted to the realization
of his dream. At this time the value of his
estate was considerably less than the desired
amount, so for years he allowed it to accu-
mulate, that in the end the sum should be
adequate to do the great work he had in
mind. He made a will. This will provides
that "the income of this permanent Trust
Fund of not less than one million dollars
shall annually be paid to the Art Institute
of Chicago, to be known as the B. F. Fer-
guson Monument Fund, and entirely and
exclusively used and expended by it under
the direction of its Board of Trustees in the
erection and maintenance of enduring statu-
ary and monuments in the whole or in part
of stone, granite or bronze, in the parks,
along the boulevards, or in other public
places within the City of Chicago, Illinois,
commemorating worthy men or women of
America, or important events of American
history. The plans or designs for such statu-
ary or monuments and the location of the
same shall be determined by the Board of
Trustees of the Art Institute."

You may read this provision of his will
upon the other side of this granite back-

Address — Charles L. Hutchinson 39

ground where it will be placed in letters of
bronze beneath the portrait of Mr. Fergu-
son. Future generations will read this sim-
ple declaration and looking about the city to
see all that the Trustees of Mr. Ferguson
have been able to accomplish through its
simple provision, will wonder at the far-
sighted wisdom of this man, who loved his
fellowmen and sought to be of service to
them— sought not only to minister to their
esthetic sense, but to arouse their patriotism
as well.

In this age of steam and electricity, when
the affairs of the world seem to be controlled
by corporations and run by machinery, we
are apt to lose sight of the value of the in-
dividual. In this age of democracy the in-
dividual is .as valuable and even more neces-
sary than ever. Mr. Ferguson brings this
clearly before us by his deliberate and care-
fully considered thought as expressed so sim-
ply in his will. The Trustees of the Art
Institute feel honored by the confidence
placed in them by Mr. Ferguson, and appre-
ciate the responsibility of so great a trust.
I feel sure that the people of Chicago will
have no just cause for complaint of the man-
ner in which the Trust will be administered.

40 Address — Charles L. Hutchinson

At present it is the intention of the Trustees
of Mr. Ferguson not to devote the proceeds
of his fund to trivial works, but rather to
seek to erect monuments worthy of the donor
and the great city which he sought to benefit.

It is proper that the first monument to be
erected from the proceeds of the Ferguson
fund should be one in memory of the donor.

Judge Payne— as President of the Trus-
tees of the Art Institute I have the honor of
presenting to the South Park Commis-
sioners, this monument, the first to be erected
from the B. F. Ferguson Monument Fund,
and to be known as the Ferguson Fountain of
the Great Lakes, and I ask all present to
stand as I pronounce the name of him whom
we would honor to-day,— Benjamin Frank-
lin Ferguson.

THE FERGUSON FOUNTAIN OF THE GREAT LAKES

Reliefs on reverse

ADDRESS OF ACCEPTANCE BY
HONORABLE JOHN BARTON PAYNE

PRESIDENT OF THE

SOUTH PARK COMMISSIONERS

OF CHICAGO

ADDRESS OF

HONORABLE JOHN BARTON PAYNE

Judge Payne spoke as follows :

In accepting this splendid monument for
and on behalf of the South Park Commis-
sioners, I speak not only for the Commis-
sioners but for the people of the City of Chi-
cago.

It is singularly appropriate that the first
great work, the result of the splendid be-
quest of B. P. Ferguson, should typify the
Great Lakes.

Bodies of water have always been the sub-
ject of song and story. Rome celebrated its
Tiber, Florence its Arno, Paris its Seine,
London its Thames.

Well may Chicago celebrate our great
chain of lakes, our inland seas, Erie, On-
tario, Huron, Michigan and Superior.

How wonderfully these names lend them-
selves to poetry, song and story, and how the
rivers fade into insignificance when com-
pared with these Great Lakes !

It is said that Chicago lacks a background ;
that its citizenship is affected by material-
ism; that we have not devoted ourselves to

43

44 Address — John Barton Payne

the arts and to the humanities as we might
have done. People who make these reflec-
tions forget that art and devotion to the
humanities for their own sake are the ripe
fruits of civilization. They follow that
splendid materialism which is expressed in
the life, the business, and the commercial
success of a city like Chicago. Chicago is not
alone in this respect. Every great center
where art now flourishes, contains or has
passed through commercial success. It is
impossible to have the ripe flower of civiliza-
tion—art, poetry and song— without means
and leisure: leisure to think, to study, to
work, and means to render this possible. In-
deed, materialism is as old as man. And
after all materialism represents those things
which make for the creature comforts, and
is objectionable only when the better things
of life are smothered, and it becomes the
end, not merely the means. That it is not
peculiar to our own time is abundantly
shown by history.

More than thirteen hundred years ago Ed-
win, the Saxon King of Northumbria, con-
vened a great council to determine whether
our forefathers should adopt the Christian
religion. The Chief Priest of the old reli-

Address — John Barton Payne 45

gion came before the assembled council and
made a speech, in which among other things
he said:

"I have found the old gods to be impost-
ers,— of this I am satisfied. Look at me. I
have been serving them all my life; they
have done nothing for me, whereas if they
had been really powerful they could not have
decently done less in return for all I have
done for them, than to have made my for-
tune. As they have never made my fortune,
I am convinced that they are imposters."

Whereupon his materialism was approved,
and the Christian religion formally adopted
as the religion of the country.

It is safe, therefore, to say that material-
ism, the desire for personal gain, for mate-
rial advancement, is part and parcel of hu-
man nature. It is the soil, the mature culti-
vation of which produces the means, while
history and time produce the background
indispensable for the development of art.

You cannot have the flower and fruit with-
out the seed, the soil and the patient labor :
time and the means are indispensable.

This is happily illustrated by what we have
here to-day. Lorado Taft, one of the few
great sculptors of this age, has placed a
crown upon the forehead of our Great Lakes.

46 Address — John Barton Payne

How has he been enabled to do this ? It could
not have been done without the union of
genius and a lifetime of study and toil neces-
sary to prepare for such a work, and this
would have been impossible without the ex-
penditure of a large sum of money, which
might never have been available but for the
munificent bequest of this large-minded, far-
seeing, successful business man, typical of
Chicago.

This was B. F. Ferguson, a lumberman.
Born in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in 1839, he
was educated in the common schools, and for
a brief time in a normal school ; began busi-
ness when seventeen years of age ; was in the
Civil War ; in 1865 came to Chicago and be-
came an employee in a lumber business. His
natural ability and enterprise pushed him
forward to success. He was associated in
his business career with other enterprising
Chicago business men, some of whom are
now living. In 1905, after having spent
thirty years in the lumber business, he died.

By his will he gave the principal part of
his fortune (not a great one as fortunes are
now measured) to the Trustees of the Art
Institute, as its President has told you, to be
devoted to the creation of monuments to

Address — John Barton Payne 47

mark the lives of great men and great na-
tional events. The result, therefore, of this
typical Chicago business man's life, joined
with the genius of a Chicago sculptor, has
given us this great monument to our Great
Lakes.

Chicago materialism has taken a great
step in its march toward a higher civiliza-
tion.

What is thus true of Chicago was true of
Florence, and of other cities now celebrated
for their art. Art followed material success.
This afforded means and opportunity for in-
tellectual growth, for the development of
genius.

The history of Florence affords a striking
illustration and proof of this fact. Giov-
anni de 'Medici amassed a great fortune, and
by his adroitness procured the elevation of
his friends to the chief offices and became
virtually ruler of the Republic of Florence.
His son, Cosimo, inherited this vast fortune,
was not only a great banker, but a statesman,
and patron of literature, and like his father
practically ruled the Republic. Florence
was passing through the period of material-
ism. Then came Lorenzo de 'Medici, "The
Magnificent," celebrated as a statesman, a

48 Address — John Barton Payne

patron of art and letters, and under his
leadership Florence obtained the position
which she has since held in the world of art.

Chicago should not, therefore, decry mate-
rialism any more than she should decry her
commercial supremacy, but should cultivate
and mould this materialism and use the bene-
fits which it brings until we have the ripe
fruit of civilization, love for our fellow man,
the humanities which teach us all that we
have lived to little purpose unless we can
leave the world better for our having lived
in it.

,There is much to be done in Chicago by
men of wealth, and the greatest incentive to
wise giving. Persons of large means cannot
find a better illustration than B. F. Fergu-
son's in this behalf. If he had divided his
fortune into small benefactions this splen-
did monument would have been impossible.
The amount would not have been sufficient
to accomplish a great work. Men should dis-
pose of their fortunes so as to accomplish
the largest good ; to do some one thing effect-
ively, to the end that the success which char-
acterized their lives should continue after
them in the wise disposition made of their
accumulated means.

Address — John Barton Payne 49

I cannot let this occasion pass without a
word of the work of the Art Institute, its
officers and trustees. Few realize how large
a place it occupies and is entitled to occupy
in the life of this city, and the splendidly
effective work it accomplishes both as a
museum of art and as a teacher of art. The
influence of its magnificent collections and
the more than three thousand students year
in and year out, upon the life of Chicago,
and the great Middle West, is beyond any
human calculation, and Mr. Ferguson was
exceedingly wise in selecting the Trustees of
the Art Institute as the Trustees of his own
benefaction.

I will no longer detain you, but accept with
profound and grateful appreciation, this
admirable work, for the South Park Com-
missioners, and through them for the people
of Chicago.

ft. *. »0««SilE» * tout CO. , CMICASO

p

F47

V