Kup's Chicago - Irv Kupcinet [95]
In summer, as elsewhere, concerts move outdoors. There is wooded Ravinia Park in suburban Highland Park, and the Grant Park Bandshell on the lakefront where free concerts are given, thanks to James Petrillo and the Chicago Musicians’ Union.
A dozen major libraries also are part of Cultural Chicago, ranging from the huge Chicago Public Library, which circulates some twelve million volumes a year, to the John Crerar Library, a specialized institution devoted to technology and medicine.
Newberry Library, one of the world’s outstanding rare-book repositories, surpasses the Library of Congress and great European centers in some of its collections. Particularly noteworthy are its collections on the Renaissance, the French Revolution, the history of printing, the American Indian, and classical music. The library also has the complete works of Brahms, Beethoven, and Bach, and nearly two thousand incunabula, books printed before the year 1500.
(Incidentally, it is across Walton Street from the library, in Newberry Square, or as it is sometimes affectionately called, “Bughouse Square,” that soap-box orators congregate almost nightly to argue their opinions with whoever will listen.)
The president of the Board of Trustees of the Newberry Library is Everett D. Graff, retired president of Joseph T. Ryerson, Inc., who owns what is probably the world’s finest private collection of Western Americana.
And speaking of private collections, Chicago has long been a major capital in the fascinating world of bibliophilism. Many of our great collectors have died in the past few years, but many of the greatest are still among us.
Morton Bodfish, former president of the First Federal Savings & Loan Association of Chicago, has one of the finest collections of material relating to Benjamin Franklin, both books and manuscripts. Philip D. Sang, executive vice-president of Goldenrod Ice Cream Company, is one of the country’s leading manuscript collectors – and maybe the greatest private collector of documentary material relating to American history: he was given an honorary degree by Rutgers recently in recognition of his collecting achievement. Fred C. Evers, a retired printing executive, owns what is probably the greatest private collection of material relating to Chicago and Illinois history. He also has fine collections of Sandburg, general Americana, and books about books. Louis H. Silver, president of the Gold Coast Hotels, is truly a giant among modern bibliophiles, as mentioned previously. His collection of English books, incunabula, Elizabethan material, and other treasures rivals the “greats” of past generations. David Borowitz has a magnificent collection of illustrated books. E. B. (“Pete”) Long, chief of research for Bruce Catton’s Centennial History of the Civil War, has built up what some experts consider to be the great private working collection of material on the Civil War. Joseph L. Eisendrath, Jr., president of Banthrico, Inc. (which manufactures metal plaques, coin banks, etc.), owns one of the best collections of books, pamphlets, and manuscripts on the Lincoln period, and is himself one of the great authorities on the Official Records of the Civil War. And Ralph G. Newman, owner of the Abraham Lincoln Book Shop, has the greatest collection of Sandburgiana extant.
Since Chicago is where modern architecture took root, you will also want to visit several landmarks connected with this heritage.
Unfortunately, the first skyscraper and other classic buildings designed by Chicagoan Louis Sullivan, the “father of modem architecture,” have been demolished. And his Auditorium Theater, owned by Roosevelt University, cannot be used until a fund drive for its restoration is completed. But the Sullivan-designed Carson Pirie Scott & Company