Benjamin Ferguson

Benjamin Franklin Ferguson (died 1905) was an American lumber merchant and philanthropist whose 1905 $1 million charitable trust gift funded seventeen of the most notable public monuments and sculptures in city-state|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. [cite book|title=Millennium Park: Creating a Chicago Landmark|author=Gilfoyle, Timothy J.|publisher=University of Chicago Press|origyear=2006|page=346] cite web|url=http://www.jstor.org/pss/1574334|title=The Role of Materials in My Geometric and Abstract Sculpture: A Memoir|accessdate=2008-07-17|date=Winter, 1982|author=Greene-Mercier, Marie Zoe|publisher=Jstor|work=Leonardo] 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. [cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,861545,00.html|title=High Winds in Chicago|accessdate=2008-07-17|date=1955-06-13|publisher=Time Inc.|work=Time] [cite web|url=http://www.artic.edu/aic/aboutus/wip/expansion/index.html|title=1955-1977: Expansion Mid-Century |accessdate=2008-07-17|publisher=The Art Institute of Chicago|date=2008] A relief sculpture of Benjamin Ferguson appears on the back on "Fountain of the Great Lakes". [cite web|url=http://brainsnack.net/cpg/thumbnails.php?album=88|publisher=Brainsnack Tours|accessdate=2008-07-07|title=Fountain of the Great Lakes, Art Institute (1913)] The fund also commissioned the recognizable "The Bowman" and "The Spearman" sculptures by Ivan Mestrovic on opposite sides of Congress Parkway at Michigan Avenue and in Grant Park. [cite web|url=http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalContentItemAction.do?contenTypeName=COC_EDITORIAL&contentOID=536938117&topChannelName=HomePage|title=Ivan Mestrovic (The Bowman and the Spearman)|accessdate=2008-07-18|publisher=City of Chicago] One of the more recent fundings was Louise Bourgeois's Jane Addams Memorial in 1996; however, the management of the fund has come under question in the 21st century. [cite web|url=http://www.chicagoartcriticsassociation.org/P/n04.html|title=The Art Institute’s Ferguson Fund Must Always Be for Public Sculpture|accessdate=2008-07-17|publisher=Chicago Art Critics Association|work=The C.A.C.A. Review|date=April 2004] 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. [cite web|url=http://www.architecture.org/tour_view.aspx?TourID=34|title=Jackson Boulevard|accessdate=2008-07-17|publisher=Chicago Architecture Foundation] [cite web|url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Radar/Deal-Estate/June-2007/New-on-the-Market-a-Three-Mansions/|title=New on the Market - Three Mansions |accessdate=2008-07-17|date=2007-06-21|publisher=Chicago Magazine]

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