opportunity offered by the plans for the Columbian Exposition to obtain a location on the lake front. The projectors of the Exposition had determined to expend $200,000 upon a temporary building there, for the use of sessions of world's congresses. The officers of the Art Institute proposed that they be allowed to add to this sum whatever amount they could raise for the erection of a permanent building, to be occupied by the Art Institute after serving its purpose as a meeting place for the world's congresses. A city ordinance of March, 1891, permitted the erection of the building on the lake front, at the foot of Adams street. Although an injunction was issued restraining the city from allowing any building to be erected on the lake front, it was made of no avail by the fact that the state legislature had in 1890 authorized the city to permit the erection there of buildings connected with the Columbian Exposition, and to retain some of them permanently. By this exceptional and fortunate circumstance de we have on its present most fitting site one of the very beautiful and valuable possessions of the people of Chicago. The cost of the original building was $648,000, of which $27,000 represented the expense for two temporary halls that were removed at the close of the Exposition. Of this total sum, $448,000 was paid by the Art Institute, and was raised by the sale of former property and by subscription. On December 8, 1893, the building was formally opened as a museum.

CONDITIONS OF TENURE

The ownership of the building was in the hands of the City of Chicago until 1904, when it passed to the South Park Commission. The right of use and occupation belongs to the Art Institute so long as it shall fulfill the conditions of its incorporation, shall open the museum to the public free on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays, shall make the mayor and comptroller of the city ex officio members of the board of trustees, and shall conform to certain other simple conditions. The property on which the building stands, comprising four hundred feet along Michigan avenue, is exempt from all taxation. By this arrangement the Art Institute practically gave to the people of Chicago the money which it expended on the building, and gained a public character which at the same time benefits itself and does credit to the people who have fostered the plan.

The advantages of the location of the Institute are great, from the standpoint both of beauty and convenience. The building is of Bedford limestone, fireproof, in Italian Renaissance style, with classic details of the Ionic and Corinthian orders. It is set forty feet back from the avenue and is three hundred and twenty feet in length. Great care was taken in the plans to insure excellent conditions for exhibitions of pictures and other objects of art, and to secure proper lighting, accessibility, simplicity of arrangement and convenience of classification. The building policy has been fully justified, for within the first year after the completion of the building, art treasures were given which in value equalled half the cost of the building; and gifts have since been made which without a proper place for their keeping would never have been entrusted to the Institute. Both the beauty and the safety of the building have stimulated interest and generosity.

Although except upon stated days in the week there is a small admission fee, still on all days the doors are open to members and their families and friends, to professional artists and public school teachers, and to pupils in the public schools

when accompanied by their teachers, and on certain easy conditions to classes studying art.

The support of the Art Institute is derived from membership dues, admission fees, voluntary gifts, and, in later years, bequests; besides these there is an annual tax which is levied by the South Park Commissioners according to an act of the legislature, to be used towards the maintenance of the Art Institute and the Field Columbian Museum.

GIFTS TO THE ART INSTITUTE

A few of the notable gifts to the Institute demand especial mention. In 1897 a lecture room with five hundred seats was built in accordance with the original plans of the building, and presented as a memorial to Alexander N. Fullerton by his son, Charles W. Fullerton. In 1900 a library was built, as provided for in the original plans, by Martin A. Ryerson, a trustee, and is called the Ryerson library. In it is a large collection of volumes and of photographic copies of the art pieces of most of the well known galleries of Europe. This library, being open to the public on free days, is then practically a free public reference library. Not only is it comfortable, ample and well appointed, but it is a quiet and beautiful spot for one who would go there merely to admire its construction and design. The collection of architectural casts presented by Mr. and Mrs. Timothy B. Blackstone, which occupies Blackstone Hall, completed in 1903, is unique among collections in America. It consists chiefly of casts of French historic sculptures, including those of cathedral portals and other architectural sculpture dating from the eleventh to the nineteenth century. The collection was brought to the Columbian Exposition by the French government, and thence came into the possession of the Art Institute.

An invaluable gift is the Henry Field collection of Barbizon paintings, which has been placed by Mrs. Henry Field for permanent keeping in the Art Institute, in a gallery fitted up for its reception with mosaic floor, and marble, and stained glass skylights. In this collection are Breton's "Song of the Lark," Millet's "Bringing Home the New-born Calf," and fine examples of Troyon, Rousseau, Corot, Constable, Daubigny and others of their school. Mrs. Field also provided for the placing on each side of the wide approach to the building a monumental bronze lion, to be executed by Edward Kemeys, the sculptor of animals. These lions were placed in position in May, 1894.

In another collection are paintings by old masters of the Dutch school, among these being important works of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Holbein, Van Dyck, Rubens, Teniers, Ruisdael and Hobbema. In still other collections are representative examples of the work of many other leaders of the modern world of art. To indicate the scope of the Art Institute it may be mentioned that there are collections of original Egyptian antiquities, of Japanese, Chinese and East Indian objects of art, of gems and jewelry, of musical instruments, armor and other valuable and interesting curiosities.

EXHIBITION HALLS

Certain halls are reserved for the use of temporary exhibitions, which form a most varied and profitable addition to the permanent exhibits, and which dur