Thomas Cusack of Chicago was born in Kilrush, County Clare, Ireland, on October 5, 1858, and died in Oak Park, Illinois on November 19, 1926. He was a pioneer and entrepreneur in the outdoor advertising industry and a politician, serving as a Democratic U.S. Representative from Illinois' 4th District from 1899 to 1901. In 1905, he resided at 393 Ashland Boulevard (810 S. Ashland Avenue, today) in Chicago. As a young boy, Cusack immigrated to New York City from Ireland with his family in 1861. Shortly after the move, his parents died, leaving Thomas and his younger brother orphaned. Thomas was raised by relatives in Chicago, where he received his education and learned how to paint, a skill that would ultimately make him a very wealthy man. In 1875, at 17, Cusack established his own sign painting business, the Thomas Cusack Company, in Chicago, with only a paint pot and brush and his remarkable personality as assets.
The business consisted of painting advertising signs on the sides of buildings in a small way. Gradually, he took to building billboards of his own and leasing suitable walls and other locations for outdoor advertisements, making him a pioneer in advertising.
Thomas Cusack and Company
The business soon became very profitable, leasing over 100,000 billboards and advertising spaces and turning Cusack into a prosperous and influential Chicagoan.
Wilson Distilling Company's advertisement was for a Madison and Wabash building in 1895. Produced by the Thomas Cusack Co.
Billboards on Park Row (11th Street ) on the east side of Michigan Avenue , Chicago, 1910.
In addition to business savvy, Cusack had a strong sense of civic duty. In 1890, Mayor of Chicago, Hempstead Washburne, appointed the "billboard baron" to a seat on the city's school board. Cusack's fervent support of public education drew the attention of Progressive Party Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld, who invited Cusack to serve on his general staff. In 1898, Cusack was elected to his first and only term in the United States Congress from the 4th District of Illinois (1899-1901). After his term, Cusack returned his attention primarily to his outdoor advertising business, which had grown considerably to over one hundred offices and produced an annual revenue of over $20 million ($717,249,000 in 2024).
Thomas Cusack and Company, 15th and Throop Streets, Chicago.
Cusack was well-known for his fair labor practices and amicable relationships with his employees and was most proud of the fact that, in a city known for labor strikes, his workers never walked off the job.
Thomas Cusack and Company Offices in New York, NY.
In his day as a sign painter, Cusack remembered getting $8 a week in wages. When he sold his business to a New York banking syndicate in 1924, he paid his workers $10 to $15 daily.
A Ghost sign - Marigold Margarine on Lincoln and Lawrence Avenues, Chicago. Thomas Cusack Co. Chicago. Thomas Cusack Co.
A Ghost Sign - Location Unknown - Thomas Cusack Co.
At the pinnacle of his business success, Thomas Cusack bought the entire unincorporated town of Cascade, Colorado, which is 5 miles as the birds fly to the east and about 15 miles of trail travel to get to the Ute Pass in the Rocky Mountains. In the 1920s, he hired architects and contractors to build a plush mansion nestled in the Ute Pass, which he named "Marigreen Pines" in memory of his wife, Mary Greene Cusack.
Marigreen Pines, at the Ute Pass in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.
Having lived through the Great Chicago Fire in 1871 and experienced so many early losses in his life, Cusack built Marigreen Pines out of brick, marble, and concrete to safeguard his family from harm. Marigreen Pines became a much-loved mountain home for Cusack and his family, where he routinely and graciously hosted many friends and relatives, engaging them in lively conversation and debate. Thomas Cusack died on November 19, 1926, at 68. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Evanston, Illinois. In 1979, Cusack's last surviving daughter, Anne Cusack, donated Marigreen Pines in Ute Pass, Colorado, to the Congregation of Holy Cross to serve as their novitiate (a place housing religious novices).
Thomas Cusack Co. Example, Year and Location Unknown.
Thomas Cusack Co. Example, Year and Location Unknown.
The Art Institute of Chicago Thorne Miniature Rooms exhibit is from Mrs. James Ward Thorne of Chicago, who loved dollhouses and miniatures as a child. After traveling in Europe, where she collected miniature furniture and accessories, Mrs. Thorne commissioned over two dozen miniature rooms created by cabinetmakers from her own drawings. The scale of the furnishings is 1:12 (one inch to one foot). The rooms were exhibited in the 1933-1934 Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition, the 1939 San Francisco Golden Gate International Exposition, and in the 1940 New York World's Fair.
One can stare at the Thorne miniature rooms for hours.
Later, Mrs. Thorne had 29 more rooms created, copying Europe's castles, museums, and historic homes. She commissioned architects to create historically accurate settings and had the textiles and carpets made by the Needlework Guild of Chicago. The rooms showing the French and English architectural and decorating styles from the 1500s to the 1920s were exhibited in 1937 at the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1942, Mrs. Thorne gave 37 more Miniature Rooms to the Art Institute of Chicago. Those rooms offered views of American history between 1875 and 1940. The 68 Thorne Miniature Rooms enable one to glimpse elements of European interiors from the late 13th Century to the 1930s and American furnishings from the 17th Century to the 1930s. Painstakingly constructed on a scale of one inch to one foot, these fascinating models were conceived by Mrs. James Ward Thorne of Chicago and built between 1932 and 1940 by master craftsmen according to her specifications. The Art Institute of Chicago's Thorne Miniature Rooms exhibit of 68 individual rooms is said to be the world's largest miniature-room collection. The black and white postcard photographs are from the 1940s. The modern color photographs are of the same rooms for comparison. Some items have been added, moved, or are missing from some miniature rooms between the 1940s photos and the modern color photographs.
Can you find the changes made from the b/w 1940s to
the 80s color postcards in these miniature rooms?
Thorne's Cape Cod Cottage Living Room. 1750
Thorne's Georgia Double Parlor. 1850
Thorne's Jeremiah Lee Mansion Drawing Room, Massachusetts. 1768
Thorne's Maryland Dining Room. 1770
Thorne's Mount Vernon West Parlor, Virginia. 1758
Thorne's New Mexico Dining Room. 1940
Thorne's New York Parlor. 1850-70
Thorne's Oak Hill Bedroom, Massachusetts. 1801
Thorne's Pierce Mansion Entrance Hall, New Hampshire. 1799
Thorne's Shaker Community House Living Room. 1800
Thorne's The Hermitage Tennessee Entrance Hall. 1835
Thorne's Virginia Kitchen 18th Century.
Thorne's Wentworth Gardner House Dining Room, New Hampshire. 1760
The construction contract was signed on February 6, 1892, to build the Art Institute building by Jonathan Clark and Sons Company. The amount specified in the contract was $325,000 ($9,362,000 today). In the end, the total cost for construction ran $975,000 ($29.4 million today).
Jonathan Clark said it would take a few weeks to raze the Interstate Industrial Exposition Building. The demolition took place around March 15, 1892. Funds for the new building came from three sources.
The Art Institute nears completion as the Illinois Central Railroad continues to surround it with coal smoke. The photo was taken from the 17-story Auditorium Building, the tallest building at the time.
The sale of the Art Institute's former building had raised $275,000. The World's Fair Directory put in the sum of $200,000, and Charles L. Hutchinson, President of the Art Institute, had raised $55,000 through private subscriptions.
Jonathan Clark was under considerable pressure to complete the building quickly. According to the contract, it must be ready by May 1, 1893, or the World's Fair Directors are released from their contractual obligation to pay any amount of the $200,000 they have pledged. The contractor was under "forfeiture bonds" amounting to $100,000 if the building was not finished by the specified date. The World Congress Auxiliary of the World's Columbian Exposition occupied the new building from May 1 to October 31, 1893, after which the Art Institute took possession on November 1, 1893. The Art Institute was officially opened to the public on December 8, 1893.
The World Congress Auxiliary opened its doors a few days after opening the World's Fair on May 13, 1893.
The Smith Stained Glass Museum opened in February of 2000 and is the first museum in the United States dedicated solely to stained glass windows. The exhibit opened under a 10-year art loan agreement signed in 1997 and then was extended with a series of one-year agreements.
A detailed view of the Field of Lilies (c.1910) window, one of 18 windows unveiled at the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows at Navy Pier which including 15 windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany.
The collection was donated by Maureen Dwyer Smith and Edward Byron Smith Jr., whose family founded Illinois Tool Works and Northern Trust.
Museum Visit - Phillip McCullough, of Mississippi, visits the Smith Museum of Stained Glass at Navy Pier.
The exhibit was open year round and was free to all Navy Pier visitors and had 143 stained glass panels/windows on display featuring both secular and religious art. The windows were divided into four categories: Victorian, Prairie, Modern, and Contemporary. Local, national, and international artists designed the windows, including Louis Comfort Tiffany, John LaFarge, Ed Paschke and Roger Brown.
Tiffany Windows - from left: Pair of Poppies (c.1890) and Field of Lilies (c.1910).
Debbie Carithers, of Table Grove, Illinois, looks at Pair of Poppies (c.1890) during an unveiling of 18 new pieces at the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows at Navy Pier.
From 1870 to the present, the windows depict landscapes, nursery rhymes, and historic moments.They represent an era of intense urban revision that featured the development, decline and revitalization of neighborhoods, the development of commercial and cultural institutions, the evolution of artistic styles, and the response of various ethnic groups to these changes.
A detail view of Bacchanalia (c.1900) at the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.
The religious windows reveal the national and ethnic styles of Chicago’s European immigrants, while the residential windows display the history of architecture and decorative art styles.
Carpenter Liam Stewart works on the installation of this large stained glass piece, Printer's History, (c.1914), at the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.
The museum also displayed unique contemporary pieces including stained glass portraits of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Michael Jordan as well as several pieces of Tiffany stained glass dating as far back as 1890. The museum contained the largest public display of Tiffany windows in the world!
Glass Cleaning - Brian Selke, assistant conservator with Restoration Division, LLC, cleans an American stained and painted glass window that will be boxed up at Navy Pier. The piece is by designers Elizabeth Parsons, Edith Blake Brown and Ethyl Isadore Brown for the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition.
The collection was on display in an unconventional space that snakes along Navy Pier's lower level, and can appear at first glance more like a well-decorated hallway than a museum. The 800-foot-long central corridor at the east end of the pier is visited by art aficionados — and tourists seeking a restroom.
Movers from Aaron's Reliable Inc. move a window from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair from The Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows. The windows are being moved to other sites, including the Macy's Pedway and Terminal 5 at Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
Ready to be Moved - Jim Freeman, left, associate conservator, and Pamela Olson, conservation technician, both with Restoration Division LLC, prepare to wrap a (c.1900) American stained and painted glass window to be moved from The Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows.
The Smith Stained Glass Museum closed in October of 2014. Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D. The Driehaus Gallery of Stained Glass Windows at Navy Pier from 2001-2017.
Chicago Skyline – Tiffany Studio
The adjacent Richard H. Driehaus Gallery of Stained Glass Windows opened in 2001 and closed in September of 2017. It was devoted to ecclesiastical and secular windows by Louis Comfort Tiffany and interrelated businesses between 1890 and 1930.
The windows were from the extensive Tiffany collection of Chicago businessman Richard H. Driehaus. There were 11 Tiffany windows on display in the Driehaus Gallery, along with a Tiffany Studios fire screen.
Tiffany Studios fire screen has four sections, each 16" wide, with simple bronze frames and scrolled bronze feet supporting center curtains of Tiffany Chain Mail with glass tiles of white and bluish opalescent glass. The screen is topped with white lightly iridescent balls within a bronze ring. The bronze is finished in rich brown patina with strong green highlights. Signed "Tiffany Studios New York." SIZE: 64" w x 36" tall to top of glass ball decoration. Sold at auction for $95,000.
