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This article is about the American lumber merchant and philanthropist. For the American radio host, see
Ben Ferguson .
Benjamin Franklin Ferguson (died 1905) was an American
lumber merchant and co-founder of the Santee River Cypress Lumber Company . The firm specialized in the harvesting of
old-growth timber from the
blackwater river bottomlands of central
South Carolina , in and around the
Santee River watershed. The tracts of land logged by Ferguson, in partnership with fellow logging executive
Francis Beidler , included substantial tracts of valuable
bald cypress .
[1]
With profits from the Santee River logging venture, Ferguson became a
philanthropist . His 1905
$ 1 million ($33.9 million today) charitable trust gift funded seventeen of the most notable public monuments and sculptures in
Chicago, Illinois ,
United States . The works include
Lorado Taft 's
Fountain of Time and
Fountain of the Great Lakes ,
Henry Moore 's
Nuclear Energy at
Chicago Pile-1 and
Man Enters the Cosmos , and a work by
Isamu Noguchi .
[2]
[3] Ferguson's gift set out terms whereby the
Art Institute of Chicago was empowered to select subjects and sites for "The erection and maintenance of enduring statuary and monuments, in whole or in part of stone, granite or bronze in the parks, along the boulevards or in other public places." The Art Institute also funded
Carl Milles 's Fountain of the Tritons , which sits in its courtyard, with this fund, but by the 1930s began to tire of standard sculpture and sought a court ruling to include buildings within the terms of the agreement. In the 1950s, they used some of the funds to add a wing to the
Art Institute of Chicago Building , named the B. F. Ferguson Memorial Building.
[4]
[5] A relief sculpture of Benjamin Ferguson appears on the back on Fountain of the Great Lakes .
[6] The fund also commissioned the recognizable
The Bowman and The Spearman sculptures by
Ivan Meštrović on opposite sides of Congress Parkway at
Michigan Avenue and in
Grant Park .
[7] The fund has commissioned the
Illinois Centennial Memorial Column in
Logan Square by
Lincoln Memorial architect,
Henry Bacon , to commemorate the 100th anniversary of
Illinois ' statehood.
[8] One of the more recent fundings was
Louise Bourgeois 's black granite The Waltz of Hands Jane Addams Memorial in 1996;
[9] however, the management of the fund has come under question in the 21st century.
[10] Ferguson lived in the
Jackson Boulevard District of the
Near West Side
community area of Chicago, where he built a red brick
Queen Anne house in 1883 that took up three city lots.
[11]
[12]
The
ghost town of
Ferguson, South Carolina , named after Ferguson, contained the mills operated by the lumberman and his partner.
[1]
Notes
^
a
b
"The Ghost Towns of Lake Marion, Part 2 - Ferguson" . randomconnections.com . April 17, 2013. Retrieved November 19, 2017 .
^ Gilfoyle, Timothy J. (2006).
Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark . University of Chicago Press. p.
346 .
ISBN
9780226293493 .
^ Greene-Mercier, Marie Zoe (Winter 1982). "The Role of Materials in My Geometric and Abstract Sculpture: A Memoir". Leonardo . 15 (1): 1–6.
doi :
10.2307/1574334 .
JSTOR
1574334 .
S2CID
191380859 .
^
"High Winds in Chicago" .
Time .
Time Inc. June 13, 1955. Archived from
the original on December 15, 2008. Retrieved July 17, 2008 .
^
"1955-1977: Expansion Mid-Century" . The Art Institute of Chicago. 2008. Retrieved July 17, 2008 .
^
"Fountain of the Great Lakes, Art Institute (1913)" . Brainsnack Tours. Archived from
the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved July 7, 2008 .
^
"Ivan Mestrovic (The Bowman and the Spearman)" . City of Chicago. Retrieved July 18, 2008 . [
dead link ]
^ Hermann, Andrew (August 9, 1991).
"Public statues are lumberman's legacy to city" .
Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from
the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2009 .
^ De LaFuente, Della and Rich Hein (September 30, 1997).
"Museum's new bronze 'Spider' isn't exactly garden variety" .
Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from
the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2009 .
^
"The Art Institute's Ferguson Fund Must Always Be for Public Sculpture" . The C.A.C.A. Review . Chicago Art Critics Association. April 2004. Retrieved July 17, 2008 .
^
"Jackson Boulevard" . Chicago Architecture Foundation. Archived from
the original on July 10, 2009. Retrieved July 17, 2008 .
^
"New on the Market - Three Mansions" .
Chicago Magazine . June 21, 2007. Retrieved July 17, 2008 .
Alexander Hamilton Statue , 1918 (
Pratt /
Coolidge )
The Bowman and The Spearman , 1928 (
Meštrović )
Defense and Regeneration , 1928 (
Hering )
Ferguson Building
Fountain of the Great Lakes , 1913 (
Taft )
Fountain of the Tritons , 1931 (
Milles )
Fountain of Time , 1922 (
Taft /
Van Doren Shaw )
Helping Hands , 1996 (
Bourgeois )
I have a Dream , 1978 (
Pattison )
Illinois Centennial Monument , 1918 (
Bacon /
Longman )
In Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Founding of the Republic , 1976 (
Noguchi )
Jacques Marquette Memorial , 1926 (
MacNeil )
Man Enters the Cosmos , 1980 (
Moore )
Man on a Bench , 1980 (
Segal )
Nuclear Energy , 1967 (
Moore )
Slabs of the Sunburnt West , 1975 (
Hunt )
Spirit of Music , 1923 (
Polasek )
Statue of The Republic , 1918 (
French )
The Waltz of Hands (
Bourgeois )