This month
marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Bryan Lathrop. Amassing a fortune in real estate and the insurance
business, he became an extraordinary philanthropist in Chicago, supporting
numerous organizations. It was through
his long-time service to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra that he and his wife
Helen became close friends with the Glessners.
Bryan
Lathrop was born in Alexandria, Virginia in 1844. His family moved to Chicago at the outbreak
of the Civil War, Chicago being the home of his uncle Thomas Barbour
Bryan. Lathrop was sent to Europe to
study and did not return to Chicago until 1865.
It was during his years in Europe that he developed a deep appreciation
for art, culture and landscape design, which would guide his future
endeavors. He later noted:
“In Europe (the intelligent traveler) sees
almost everywhere evidences of a sense of beauty . . . In America, almost
everywhere he is struck by the want of it. . . In this new country of ours the
struggle for existence has been intense, and the practical side of life has
been developed while the aesthetic side has lain dormant.”
Upon his
return to Chicago, Lathrop joined his uncle’s real estate investment
practice. The two men shared a great
deal in common, including their appreciation for landscape gardening. As such, it is not surprising that Bryan
involved his nephew in the development of Graceland Cemetery, with Lathrop
joining the board of managers in 1867. When
his uncle moved to Washington in 1877, Lathrop became the president of the
board, guiding the development of the cemetery until his death nearly forty
years later.
Almost immediately, Lathrop
engaged the services of a civil engineer by the name of Ossian C. Simonds, who
would go on to become one of Chicago’s most important landscape
architects. Together they shared an
understanding and appreciation for naturalistic landscapes, and their work at
Graceland had a profound effect on not only the cemetery, but the development
of landscape architecture in the United States.
Lathrop
became an early advocate for the development of parks in Chicago, and as vice
president of the Lincoln Park board, led an effort to extend that park along
the shore of Lake Michigan supporting the concept of naturalism in its design.
In 1891,
Lathrop and his wife Helen Aldis, whom he had married in 1875, commissioned
Charles Follen McKim, of the firm McKim, Mead and White, to design their home
at 120 East Bellevue Place. Completed in
time for the World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893, the house was described by
architect Alfred Hoyt Granger as “the most perfect piece of Georgian
architecture in Chicago.” McKim came to Chicago
in early 1891 regarding his design for the Agricultural Building at the Fair,
and it was at that time that he and Lathrop were brought together. One of the few buildings in Chicago designed
by the firm, the design brought Georgian Revival to the Gold Coast, and in less
than a decade, it was the predominant style.
(The house has been owned and occupied by The Fortnightly since 1922,
and was designated a Chicago landmark in 1973).
Vauxhall Bridge, 1861; James Abbott McNeill Whistler
(Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago)
(Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago)
Lathrop
was a sophisticated and well-respected art collector, and the home was filled
with his treasures. Of particular
significance was his collection of the works of James Abbott McNeill Whistler,
the largest in the country.
Bryan Lathrop
became a trustee of the Orchestral Association in 1894 and four years later was
named vice president. In 1903, he was
elected president and served in that capacity until his death. It was under his leadership that the
orchestra moved into its new home, Orchestra Hall, and that the current name,
the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was adopted in early 1913.
First program using the Chicago Symphony Orchestra name, February 1913
Lathrop
was a co-founder of the Chicago Real Estate Board, and developed an excellent
reputation for handling large estates both in Chicago and in the East. His other philanthropic activities included
the Chicago Relief and Aid Society and the Newberry Library.
Lathrop died
from heart disease at his Bellevue Place home in 1916. As noted in Illinois, the Heart of the Nation by Edward Fitzsimmons Dunne:
“Bryan Lathrop, who died May 13, 1916, was a
wealthy, generous, and public spirited citizen to whom the people of the city
were indebted during his life time and since for his constructive work in
behalf of several of Chicago’s cultural and philanthropic institutions.”
The
funeral service was held in the chapel of Graceland Cemetery. Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, cancelled their concert in Buffalo, New York and returned
to Chicago in time for the funeral. Edgar
Lee Masters wrote a commemorative poem about Lathrop specifically noting his
support of music in Chicago, which was published in Poetry magazine.
Lathrop’s
bequests were numerous including $700,000 to the Orchestra for the establishment of the Civic Music Student Orchestra, the predecessor of the current Civic Orchestra. It was the largest
gift ever made to the Orchestra up to that time. (The orchestra also established the Bryan
Lathrop Memorial Scholarship Fund in his memory, using a large gift from his
sister Florence, the wife of Thomas Nelson Page, author and U.S. ambassador to
Italy.) His large collection of Whistler
artworks was given to the Art Institute of Chicago and his library went to the
Newberry. Additional bequests were made
to United Charities and Children’s Memorial Hospital.
Bryan
Lathrop was buried in a large landscaped plot at Graceland Cemetery, with only
a small unobtrusive headstone marking his grave. Helen Lathrop died in 1935 at her summer
home in Bar Harbor, Maine, and was interred beside her husband.
A TRIBUTE TO FRANCES GLESSNER
In 1905,
Bryan Lathrop was asked to submit a page to the calendar being prepared by the
Monday Morning Reading Class as a surprise for Frances Glessner. It was presented to her on her birthday,
January 1, 1906. For his page, Lathrop selected
an excerpt from “Arcades,” a masque written by John Milton in 1634 to honor
Alice Spencer, the Countess Dowager of Darby, on her 75th
birthday. The selection of this excerpt
says a great deal about Lathrop’s respect for Frances Glessner, as the piece
extols the subject as being far superior to other noble women. The excerpt reads:
“Such sweet compulsion doth in music lie,
To lull the daughters of Necessity,
And keep unsteady Nature to her law,
and the low world in measured motion draw
After the heavenly tune, which none can hear
Of human mold with gross unpurged ear.”
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