Grant Park and the Globe: Lucy Mitchell, Bessie Bennett, and the Art Institute of Chicago

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century the Art Institute of Chicago, like the city it established itself in, sought a global reputation. Its early leaders wanted to acquire art from all over the world while promoting its collections to a global audience. The progress the museum made during this time has often been attributed to the famous men of Chicago, including Charles Hutchinson, Martin Ryerson, and Marshall Field. Indeed, much public and scholarly attention has been devoted to the infrastructural, financial, and administrative developments that these men oversaw as trustees, directors, treasurers, and philanthropists. However, this view neglects the lesser-known contributors, male or female, who played other roles in seeking a global reputation for the Art Institute. Using the annual reports and catalogues of the museum as primary sources and referencing the historiography on the Art Institute and the city of Chicago, this article explores the stories of two such contributors—Lucy Mitchell and Bessie Bennett. Mitchell, a classical archaeologist and adviser to the Elbridge G. Hall cast collection, and Bennett, one of the first woman curators of a major American museum, illustrate how women helped to lead the museum to become one of the most prestigious institutions in the world. They did so despite long-time financial constraints on their work and their exclusion from the ranks of the museum’s leadership. This work thus shows how unhelpful it is to view the development of a museum, or an entire city, as the product of the efforts of one “great” man. Rather, the globalizing history of the Art Institute was the accumulation of the labor of many individuals.