On the first day of summer, more than 50 years ago - June 21, 1972 - nearly 200 friends and colleagues of Richard Nickel gathered in the courtyard of Glessner House to pay tribute to the dedicated preservationist and talented architectural photographer who lost his life while salvaging ornament i...

At the invitation of first music director Theodore Thomas, Frederick Stock joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s viola section in 1895. He was promoted to assistant conductor in 1899, and in 1905, he succeeded the ensemble’s founder to become second music director. During his 37-year tenure (th...

As part of the recent adoption of our Land Acknowledgement, and in celebration of the start of Native American Heritage Month, Glessner House hosted this meaningful discussion about the creation of the new permanent exhibition, Native Truths: Our Voices, Our Stories, at the Field Museum.

This on...

What on Earth does geology have to do with the world-renowned architectural masterpieces of the Windy City? Raymond Wiggers, acclaimed author of the guidebooks Chicago in Stone and Clay and Geology Underfoot in Illinois, explains the fascinating and often surprising links between science, art, an...

In the 1870s, George Pullman, manufacturer of the famous and luxurious Pullman Palace Cars, purchased land along Lake Calumet south of Chicago, to build a town in which to produce his railroad cars and house his workers.

By the early 20th century, the company was forced to sell off everything e...

On January 1, 1906, Frances Glessner received an extraordinary birthday gift: a large leather-bound calendar containing entries from family and friends – one entry for each day of the year. The entries ranged from intimate family messages to quotes, sketches, and musical fragments from social and...

Prairie Avenue may have been the “sunny street that held the sifted few,” but less than a mile to the west one could find the infamous red-light district known as the Levee. The district thrived from the 1880s through the first decade of the 20th century and was home to numerous brothels, saloons...

Inside an ordinary-looking terraced house in Cambridge, UK, lies the amazing work of a 19th century decorative artist and working-class man – David Parr – a man who helped to execute some of the greatest Arts & Crafts and neo-Gothic designs of the day. David Parr created a stunning set of hand-pa...

April 26, 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, regarded as the father of landscape architecture. This online presentation explored the design of one of his most significant projects - the town of Riverside, Illinois, a National Historic Landmark named by Geoffre...

In celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted in 2022, this online presentation explored a dual portrait of America's finest landscape designer and her first great architect, Henry Hobson Richardson - and their immense impact on America.

Olmsted is widely revered as Am...

On the 1891 census, May Morris described herself as ‘artist, designer, embroiderer and employer,” a self-assessment which belies the range of her contribution to the cultural enrichment of the two centuries over which her life spanned. An early champion of socialism and a model for the rising fem...

William Frend De Morgan (1839-1917) was one of the most inventive and innovative craftsmen of the English Arts & Crafts movement. Largely remembered today for his collaboration with William Morris, De Morgan transformed 19th century English ceramics with his luster glazes and dramatic depictions ...