International Museum of Surgical Science, 1524 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago.

Dr. Max Thorek founded the International College of Surgeons (ICS) in 1935 to promote the exchange of surgical knowledge and foster understanding and goodwill worldwide. He had an equally noble goal in establishing the International Museum of Surgical Science ─ to enrich people's lives.

Dr. Max Thorek

Beginning in 1950, through the efforts of Dr. Thorek, the Museum received donations of objects and artwork from many of the national sections of the ICS, individual surgeons and collectors, and other institutions. Shipments of artifacts, paintings, sculptures, and books arrived, and the Museum began to take shape. A historic lakeside mansion was acquired to house the Museum adjacent to the ICS headquarters.

The Museum opened to the public on September 9, 1954. One of the first exhibits to be installed was the Hall of Immortals, containing twelve large stone statues of significant figures in medicine and the allied sciences. In further reverence to great scientists, surgeons and discoveries of the past, a Hall of Murals was created with a series of large paintings depicting the development of surgical science through the ages.

In 1959, the Museum marked the dedication of galleries devoted to France, Mexico, Spain and the Netherlands, with many more national rooms inaugurated over the years. The founding leaders of the Museum hoped to make the collection meaningful to the public by organizing exhibits by nation. Each room, hallway, and stair landing was devoted to one nation or region's historical collection to trace a particular nation's contribution to surgery.

In 1990, new exhibits were developed based on historical themes and surgical disciplines. This type of exhibit provides a more appropriate historical context for the collections. The "Anatomy in the Gallery" exhibition program, developed in 1998 to introduce a contemporary art element into the historical Museum, presents work by contemporary artists dealing with various medically related themes. The exhibitions include work of a challenging and innovative nature about anatomy, death, disease/wellness, disability, and other medical issues.

Over the past decade, the International Museum of Surgical Science has significantly strengthened its educational programs and exhibits and conserved its noteworthy collections and historic landmark building. The Museum looks forward to continuing this progress and to a future of bringing the international aspects of science, history and art to an increasing audience from the entire world.

The historic lakeside mansion at 1524 N. Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, which is now the International Museum of Surgical Science, was constructed in 1917 under the direction of Eleanor Robinson Countiss to house her family. Her father, an executive of the Diamond Match Company, generously provided the funds to build the home.

The elegant structure was designed to follow the historical lines of Le Petit Trianon, a French chateau on the grounds of Versailles completed in 1770 for Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The noted Chicago architect Howard Van Doren Shaw was hired to design the Countiss mansion with modifications, including a fourth floor added to the original design, adding a door on the side street, and opening up the northernmost bay for a carriage drive.

Original interior finishes of Italian marble and cut stone; decorative plasterwork, metal fixtures and hardware; eight marble fireplaces; and a gilded metal grand staircase are among the features which have been preserved.

The Countiss family was the sole owner of the building until 1950 when it was acquired by Dr. Max Thorek and the International College of Surgeons. After several years of renovating the building and forming the Museum collection, the Museum opened its doors to the public for the first time in 1954 under the direction of Dr. Max Thorek.

One of the few remaining lakefront mansions, and the only one open to the public, the building received historic status in 1988, is listed in the National Register and the Illinois Register of Historic Places and is a City of Chicago Landmark.

COLLECTIONS

The Museum's four floors are filled with extraordinary artifacts paintings, and sculptures that interpret the primitive and modern healing practices of Eastern and Western civilizations. The Museum's collections and exhibits portray the mysteries and milestones that have shaped modern surgical science.

Amputation─Trephine set (a saw used to remove a circle of tissue or bone. (circa 1860)

Medical artifacts, apparatus and instruments comprise most of the material in the Museum's collections. Over 7,000 medical artifacts spanning centuries of worldwide medical history, from acupuncture to X-ray therapy, are represented in the collections. Among the exceptional artifacts is an Austrian amputation saw with a reversible blade (c.1500); original X-rays taken by radiology pioneer Emil Grubbé (c.1910); the Lindbergh perfusion pump, which enabled doctors to keep organs functioning outside the body, invented by the renowned aviator Charles Lindbergh and Nobel Prize-winning surgeon Alexis Carrel (1935); and a unique collection of heart valves donated by Dr. Juro Wada (c.1960-80).

Fluoroscope

Fine art is featured in the collections through over 600 paintings, prints and sculptures, primarily portraits of individuals and historical depictions of specific procedures or events. Highlights include a portrait of Dr. Edward Jenner by John Russell (1790) and the original plaster cast of the death mask of Napoleon (1821). Significant artworks were commissioned by the Museum for the collections in 1950-53, including the Hall of Immortals and the Hall of Murals.

An Iron Lung

The Museum Library contains over 5,000 books and bound journals, including extremely rare early medical books from the 16th to 18th centuries.

The manuscript collection contains over 650 letters and papers from prominent figures in medical history, extending over four centuries, donated by Dr. Max Thorek in 1954. This collection includes documents from Edward Jenner, Florence Nightingale, Thomas Guy, Laennec, Langenback, Bergmann, Billroth, Malpighi, Rush, Wistar, and others.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Illinois' Fourth (4th) Statehouse, Vandalia, Illinois.

The fourth Illinois statehouse in Vandalia served as the State capitol from 1836 until 1839 and is the oldest surviving capitol building in the state. The first (1818-1820) was at Kaskaskia, the state’s first capital. The second (1820-1823), third (1824-1836), and fourth (1836-1839) were all in Vandalia. The fifth (1839-1876) is in Springfield and is preserved as the Old State Capitol State Historic Site. The sixth is the current capital (1876-present) in Springfield.

As a historian, I was escorted into the roped-off and closed rooms to take pictures on October 9, 2013. The volunteer had a wealth of knowledge and joined my Facebook group after I finished the photoshoot. 

The Vandalia Statehouse is significant for its association with Abraham Lincoln, who served in the House of Representatives. In 1974 the Statehouse was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Statehouse is located in the center of a city block in downtown Vandalia, a two-story painted brick structure. Porticoes on the north and south sides of the “restored” building reproduce those added in the 1850s. 

The first floor contains a large entry hall and rooms representing the offices of the Auditor, Treasurer, and Secretary of State, as well as the Supreme Court chamber. The second floor comprises a central hall and recreated House and Senate chambers, each containing a visitor gallery reached by staircases. 

The visitors’ Gallery is off-limits due to the fire code stating there must be two exits; the Gallery has only one.

The square on which the building is located is handsomely landscaped, with many trees. A large statue, the “Madonna of the Trail,” donated by the Daughters of the American Revolution and dedicated in 1928, is located on the southwest corner. It commemorates Vandalia as the official terminus of the historic National Road.

Visitors are offered free guided tours through the building or can view the historically furnished rooms independently from the roped-off open doorways. Informational signs describing each room are located in the hall, but nobody is permitted into the rooms. A small exhibit in the first-floor hall outlines Abraham Lincoln’s connection with the Statehouse. 

An accessible restroom was built on the northwest corner of the Statehouse grounds. 

A Brief History of Illinois State Capitol Buildings from 1818 to the Present.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Standard Oil Gas Station, Odell, Illinois on Route 66.

In 1868, John D. Rockefeller formed the Standard Oil Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This was the beginning of the Standard Oil Trust Company, which would soon dominate oil refineries and gas stations around America. 

In 1890, the Standard Oil Company set up its first company in Illinois.

In 1932, a contractor, Patrick O'Donnell, purchased a small parcel of land along Route 66 in Odell, Illinois. There he built a gas station based on a 1916 Standard Oil of Ohio design, commonly known as a domestic-style gas station. 

This "house with canopy" style of the gas station gave customers a comfortable feeling they could associate with home. This association created an atmosphere of trust for commercial and recreational travelers of the day.

The station originally sold Standard Oil products, but after O'Donnell leased the property to others, the station began selling Sinclair and the now famous Phillips 66. 

In the late 1940s, O'Donnell added a two-bay garage to accommodate repair services, which was necessary to stay competitive with the nine other stations that occupied the short stretch of Route 66 through Odell. The gas station was in constant use during the heyday of travel on Route 66. It was a welcomed rest stop for weary travelers and a place for the kids to get out and stretch their legs.

The station sold gasoline until the 1960s and then became an auto body shop until the late 1970s when it closed its doors for good. It fell into disrepair and would have been destroyed had it not been for the town of Odell and the people who loved their gas station. In 1997, the station was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Then, thanks to a collaborative effort, the Illinois Route 66 Association, the Village of Odell, the Illinois State Historic Preservation Office, the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, and Hampton Inn Landmarks restored the station to its former glory. A Standard Oil sign hanging from the roof swings gently in the warm breeze, and an old-fashioned gas pump looks ready to serve the next customer. Although Odell's Standard Oil Gas Station no longer sells gasoline, it has become a welcome center for the Village of Odell. 

The station won the National Historic Route 66 Federation Cyrus Avery Award in 2002 for the year's most outstanding Route 66 preservation project.  

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Noble Seymour Crippen House, Chicago's (claimed) Oldest House - 1833

Mark Noble Sr., an English immigrant, was a noted early Chicago pioneer. He was a founder of Chicago's first Methodist Church, helped avert a famine after the Blackhawk Wars by butchering cattle and once lived in John Kinzie's cabin. In 1833, Mark and Margaret Noble claimed more than 150 acres in the area and built the first frame house in the township on the top of Union Ridge, a glacial moraine and once the shoreline of Lake Michigan. Its southern wing, built in 1833, is widely considered the oldest existing building in Chicago. The Noble-Seymour-Crippen house lays claim to being the oldest existing home in Chicago.

The southern wing of the house was originally used as a farmhouse. The frame structure was approximately 25 by 30 feet, and the main entrance was in the center of the south-facing end, facing Talcott Road. It was built from white pine with a brick foundation. The center of the building featured a fireplace, and there was probably a cellar. A window was found on each side of the main door; there were probably two windows along each of the long sides of the house.

In 1868, Thomas Seymour, a prominent member of Chicago's Board of Trade, bought the house and land. He and his wife Louisa immediately added an Italianate-style northern wing to accommodate his large family and servants. He also raised the roof on the older section, the south wing, to build a second floor. This also allowed for the implementation of round, arched windows. A small, wood-frame summer kitchen was added to the south gable of the south wing. The family used the first floor of the former Noble house as a large dining room, and they used the second floor as servants' quarters. A frieze was added to this wing below the roof to ensure architectural harmony with the newer section.

The Italianate addition has a typical floor plan for the era. A side entry hall with a stairway opens to a parlor, library, and dining room, which was the former Noble house. The second floor was used for bedrooms with a connecting door to the servants' quarters. In the 1890s, Seymour built a wood porch stretching from the south wing entrance to the Italianate entrance. Porticoes were installed over each door.

Mr. Seymour raised cattle and cultivated an apple orchard, cherry trees, and a vineyard. Seymour joined the Norwood Land and Building Association in its efforts to build a moral, healthy and beautifully landscaped suburban village. This led to the purchase of six farms and the founding of both the Township and Village of Norwood Park in 1874. Mr. Seymour served as president of the Village for 14 years. When he died in 1916, the property was sold. The house and the land south, to the far side of today's Kennedy Expressway, were sold as one of the subdivided units.

Charlotte Allen Crippen purchased the property in 1916 for her family and her business, the L.B. Allen Co. Dramatist Charlotte Allen had met her husband, concert pianist Stuart Crippen Sr., on the Chautauqua circuit. The civic-minded Crippen family sponsored community theater and musical productions and founded the local Little League Baseball program and the Norwood Park Baptist Church. They raised $750,000 for a World War II hospital plane named "The Spirit of Norwood Park."

Initially, the Crippens' home was only a summer residence without plumbing or electricity. During the 1920s, the Crippens installed indoor plumbing and electricity and added a second stairway to the Noble wing. With these additions, they made it their permanent residence. During the Depression, the house was divided into two residences and occupied by their two sons, Paul and Stuart, Jr. and their families. When the Kennedy Expressway was built in 1960, the L.B. Allen Co. was forced to move and the land was sold.

Agnes Crippen, widow of Stuart Jr., and her children, Nancy Crippen Michener and Stuart C. Crippen sold the house and the remaining 1.7 acres of land to the Norwood Park Historical Society on December 31, 1987. The Noble Seymour Crippen House was designated a City of Chicago Historic Landmark on May 11, 1988, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 11, 2000.

Since 1998, the building has served as the Norwood Park Historical Society, a museum and community center at 5622-24 North Newark Avenue in Chicago.

Chicago's Oldest House Debate. Noble-Seymour-Crippen House vs. The Henry Brown Clarke House. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Barack Obama announces the groundbreaking ceremony for his presidential library in Chicago’s covenanted Jackson Park.

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In historical writing and analysis, PRESENTISM introduces present-day ideas and perspectives into depictions or interpretations of the past. Presentism is a form of cultural bias that creates a distorted understanding of the subject matter. Reading modern notions of morality into the past is committing the error of presentism. Historical accounts are written by people and can be slanted, so I try my hardest to present fact-based and well-researched articles.

Facts don't require one's approval or acceptance.

I present [PG-13] articles without regard to race, color, political party, or religious beliefs, including Atheism, national origin, citizenship status, gender, LGBTQ+ status, disability, military status, or educational level. What I present are facts — NOT Alternative Facts — about the subject. You won't find articles or readers' comments that spread rumors, lies, hateful statements, and people instigating arguments or fights.

FOR HISTORICAL CLARITY

When I write about the INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, I follow this historical terminology:

• The use of old commonly used terms, disrespectful today, i.e., REDMAN or REDMEN, SAVAGES, and HALF-BREED are explained in this article.

Writing about AFRICAN-AMERICAN history, I follow these race terms:

• "NEGRO" was the term used until the mid-1960s.
• "BLACK" started being used in the mid-1960s.
• "AFRICAN-AMERICAN" [Afro-American] began usage in the late 1980s.

— PLEASE PRACTICE HISTORICISM —

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE PAST IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.

 

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Five years ago, then-President Barack Obama chose Chicago’s Jackson Park as the future site of his presidential center, stirring the South Side with the promise of long-overdue transformation and the distinction of being the place where the story of the nation’s first Black president and first lady is told.

On Tuesday, September 28, 2021, the Obamas will return to Chicago and at last kick off construction during a ceremonial groundbreaking with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, the Obama Foundation announced. The celebration follows a protracted journey that began in 2016 and, thanks to a confluence of obstacles, at times left supporters to wonder if dirt would ever be turned.

But with a date for the ceremony formally inked in, the Obama Presidential Center will take an important step toward its debut on the South Side, where Barack Obama was first elected to public office and Michelle Obama grew up.

“Michelle and I could not be more excited to break ground on the Obama Presidential Center in the community that we love,” Barack Obama said in a video posted Friday. “With your help, we can make the center a catalyst for economic opportunity, a new world-class destination on the South Side, and a platform for young people to drive change. So let’s celebrate Chicago.”

Obama Foundation President Valerie Jarrett agreed, saying next week’s ceremony also represents a milestone for the South Side.

“I spent my entire childhood and adulthood seeing the South Side overlooked,” Valerie Jarrett told the Tribune this past Monday. “For generations now, the South Side of Chicago hasn’t seen the kind of investment and attention that I think it deserves. So, long overdue, and I couldn’t be more proud that it is President and Mrs. Obama who decided to make this major investment in the South Side of Chicago.”

In pitching the vision of his presidential center, Obama sought to build a “living, breathing” campus that pays homage to the movement that made his historic presidency possible, Jarrett said — including in Chicago, where he served as a community organizer before finding his political star.

“This is not your parents’ or your grandparents’ presidential library,” Valerie Jarrett said. “This is a library of pointing really towards the future, that stands on the shoulders of our past.”

When Obama announced that historic Jackson Park, sandwiched between Lake Michigan and Woodlawn, would be the destination of his future presidential center, its opening day was scheduled for this year. But it would only be last month that shovels even hit the ground at the site, following a failed but lengthy legal effort to halt construction.

The hurdles to groundbreaking stemmed from Obama’s decision to place his presidential center at a park listed on the National Register of Historic Places and first mapped out in 1871 by famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, who also co-designed New York’s, Central Park. The Jackson Park location, as well as the need to close and expand major adjacent streets, prompted a yearslong federal review that concluded this February.

However, that would not be the last the city and the Obama Foundation would hear from those who oppose the Jackson Park location. Protect Our Parks, a park preservationist nonprofit that unsuccessfully sued the city in 2018 to block the project, filed a second legal challenge the same day pre-construction roadwork began in April, this time regarding the legality of the federal review.

That lawsuit recently led to an emergency bid to block construction that was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in August. Bulldozers soon descended on the site, though the plaintiffs maintain they still have legal options in their arsenal.

Amid the twists and turns that the decision to locate the campus at Jackson Park sparked, Jarrett, said the Obamas never doubted their choice.

“Hard things are hard,” said Jarrett, who has deep roots in Chicago and worked in the Obama White House. “The challenges presented were challenges that we were prepared to overcome, and we have. And so, no, I never heard a single time where President Obama wavered in his commitment to deliver this world-class center on this site and in this location.”

The $700 million presidential center is mostly dirt mounds now, but in four years there is to be a 235-foot-tall tower with a quote from Barack Obama’s speech marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil-rights marches carved on the exterior. There will be a forum building and a plaza with public artwork open to members of the community to gather, as well as an athletic and recreation center.

A new branch of the Chicago Public Library will include on its roof a garden resembling Michelle Obama’s fruit and vegetable garden at the White House. And a playground, walking paths, and a sledding hill will adorn the park area surrounding the buildings.

Meanwhile, Obama Presidential Center Museum Director Louise Bernard, who also helped design the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, said the team has been searching across the nation for the thousands of objects that will go into the artifact collection. But Bernard emphasized the artifacts are not a “time capsule” but a way to inspire future generations, including the young South Side visitors who might come to see themselves as a future president of the U.S.

“It’s not simply that the history is this thing that happened in the past to other people, or that the objects all live behind glass … but rather that the visitor feels themselves to be a social actor in the making of history,” Bernard said in a recent interview.

In newly revealed details, Bernard shared that the four floors of the museum will start with the first level portraying Obama’s childhood in Hawaii and Indonesia as well as his seminal years in Chicago with Michelle Obama and his first presidential campaign. The second floor will frame his administration’s tenure, beginning with its inheritance of an economic meltdown and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On the third floor will be a homage to the diversity of the different groups of people who worked at the Obama White House, and a full-scale replica of the Oval Office will be open for visitors to walk through. And finally, the last floor will symbolize Obama’s “passing of the baton” to the next generation of leaders in his farewell address in Chicago, Bernard said.

“It’s a story that’s connected, obviously, to Chicago,” Bernard said. “It’s really rooted in the South Side of Chicago broadly. … As much as the kind of central narrative arc is about the Obama presidency, it is also about all of the people who made his journey possible.”

By Alice Yin, Chicago Tribune, Sept 24, 2021

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Bes-Ben Shops. Chicago's Avant-Garde Milliner.

Benjamin 'Ben' Benedict Green-Field (1897-1988) was born in Chicago. At six, his father died, so his mother, Ida, became a milliner to support the family. After dropping out of high school, Green-Field also apprenticed in the millinery trade.

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Benjamin Benedict Green-Field's birth year, 1897, is the correct year from Rosehill Cemetery records, and everywhere else online shows Ben's birth year as 1898.

In 1919, Ben and his sister Bessie (1895-1987) opened a millinery and hat boutique on Chicago's State Street and named it Bes-Ben. 

sidebar

The difference between a Haberdasher and a Milliner is that a haberdasher is a dealer in ribbons, buttons, thread, needles, small sewing accessories and sewing goods (aka notions) while a milliner is a person who is involved in the manufacture, design, and/or the sale of hats for women.

The pair's business had grown in eight years and opened four more shops. 

Portrait of Benjamin Green-Field seated with sister Bessie, c.1920s.

Within eight years, the pair had grown their business enough to open four more shops. Though Bessie left the company shortly after getting married, Ben continued to sell hats for over fifty years, serving clients from Chicago's high society and Hollywood stars like Lucille Ball, Marlene Dietrich, Carole Landis, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Bes-Ben hats were often decorated with multiple "miniatures" of things, including dogs, owls, palm trees, lobsters, kitchen utensils, napkin rings, cigarette packages, bugs, skyscrapers, and doll furniture. The hat that Green-Field made for Hedda Hopper to wear to the film "The Razor's Edge" premiere was topped with actual razor blades!

Women's Bes-Ben hat features a navy blue straw crown decorated on the edge with six gold and brown silk floss embroidered butterflies. Three butterflies sit atop the crown. Navy diamond pattern net veil. Worn by donor's mother, Mrs. Donald F. McPherson (Frances Ogden West), grandniece of William B. Ogden, first mayor of Chicago,  c.1956

Women's hat with crown entirely covered with white, grey, blue, and yellow embroidered swans, designed by Bes-Ben, 1965.

As with many milliners of the time, the rationing of the war years caused Green Field to embrace non-traditional materials. During the WWII-era (1939-1945) interview, Green-Field said: "Anything that makes people laugh at this point in world history may be said to have its own excuse for being."

The Bes-Ben style had shifted from traditional, stylish hats to surreal and amusing designs in 1941. Green-Field's sense of humor, high design skills, and use of unique materials made his work highly sought after.

Women's Bes-Ben hat of blue and red silk velvet and green and orange cotton plush. Features organic abstract shapes decorated with the stylized face of white and orange wool felt, orange feathers, and green faceted stones. One of 5 hats specially executed in conjunction with an exhibition of the works of Pablo Picasso at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1957

Women's Bes-Ben hat of red, green, and fuchsia silk velvet, trimmed with two green plastic stones and peacock feathers. One of 5 Hats was specially constructed in conjunction with an exhibition of the works of Pablo Picasso at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1957.

Heralded as "Chicago's Mad Hatter" in the 1940s, his designs became increasingly whimsical and witty, incorporating unique elements such as kitchen utensils, dice, playing cards, cigarettes, and matchbooks.

Green-Field originally custom-made this piece for Mary Frances Ackerman, the wife of Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck.

Conical hat made of black tubing and beads, trimmed with three bumblebees and beaded veil,  c.1950.

The signature Bes-Ben panache extended to Green-Field's personal style as well. He loved to dress up and was fond of brocade jackets, cashmere and jewelry. He was known for his extensive wardrobe and the decorative items he collected during travels. His shop at 938 North Michigan Avenue was full of pillows he brought back from around the world and was a popular social location.

Women's Bes-Ben hat of orange woven straw with green leaves and vegetables around the crown, c.1955.

As well as a talented millinery designer, Green-Field was an astute businessman who knew how to market his hats. 

Benjamin Green-Field owned Bes-Ben and a model wearing his rabbit hat design.

Every summer, he would hold a sale where everything would be $5, a fantastic deal considering that most of his hats sold for more than $100. People would line up at 2:15 AM for a chance to grab a hat flung out to the crowd by Green-Field himself.

A crowd outside Bes-Ben's store clamors for hats at 2:15 AM, 1963, Time-Life Magazine.

It would take him an hour and a half to empty his store of around 400 hats, and then the shop would close for several weeks for a staff holiday. Green-Field would then leave on one of his famous around-the-world shopping trips; it's said he's been around the world more than 70 times, as documented by Bes-Ben's records from 1920-1988 [1].

One of his pieces, 'Independence Day,' was sold at auction for a record $18,400! The hat was adorned with an unfurled American flag with red, white, and blue firecrackers and stars.

In the 1960s, demand for hats declined. Note that men also stopped buying and wearing hats once President John F Kennedy took office in 1961 because he did not like wearing hats.

Green-Field, family, and clients generously donated more than 500 hats to the Chicago Historical Society (name changed to the "Chicago History Museum" in September 2006), plus all the trims, materials, and hat blocks from his shops. He also included many of his suits and robes from his personal wardrobe. A significant contribution funded the creation of the Benjamin B. Green-Field Gallery and the Bessie Green-Field Warshawsky (no connection to the famous auto parts magnate, Roy I. Warshawsky of Chicago's "Warshawsky and Company.") Gallery in memory of his sister.

Founded in 1974, the Costume Council supports the Chicago History Museum's work to care for, conserve, interpret, and display items in the costume collection. The Museum has maintained and grown into one of the world's premier collections through the Council's efforts, with pieces dating from the eighteenth century to the present. The Council also generously supports the Museum's costume-based exhibitions, furthering the public's understanding of history through clothing. The Chicago History Museum is home to one of the world's largest collections of Bes-Ben hats. 

The success of Bes-Ben enabled Green-Field to be a philanthropist. He founded and endowed the Benjamin B. Green-Field Foundation in 1987, an organization that continues to improve the quality of life for children and the elderly in Chicago.

Ben died at 90 or 91 and is buried at Rosehill Cemetery in the Green-Field Family Room in the Mausoleum, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, in 1988.

VERIFIED SHOP LOCATIONS 

Bes-Ben Shop at 620 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago. 

Bes-Ben Inc., at 938 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago.

MILLINERY RETAIL SHOPS IN CHICAGO'S YELLOW PAGES

1913 = 411

1940 = 509

1963 = 158

MILLINERY SHOPS LEFT IN 2021 CHICAGOLAND

Chicago: 

    Loreta Corsetti Millinery

    Eia Millinery Design

    Optimo Hats

Skokie: 

    Chapeau Creations Hats

Glen Ellyn:

    Veiled By ChaCha

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

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[1] The Chicago History Museum holds Bes-Ben, Inc., records from 1920-1988. What's included? Ledgers, photographs, customer card index files, state time inspection records; sundry correspondence, sales slips, passports, personal account books, and other materials relating to the Bes-Ben millinery shops in Chicago operated by Benjamin Green-Field and his sister Bessie Green-Field Warshawsky. Also included are records of Ben's world travels.