Driehaus Museum

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is a museum located at 40 East Erie Street on the Near North Side in Chicago, Illinois, near the Magnificent Mile. The museum is housed within the historic Samuel M. Nickerson House, the 1883 residence of a wealthy Chicago banker.[2] Although the mansion has been restored, the Driehaus Museum does not re-create the Nickerson period but rather broadly interprets and displays the prevailing design, architecture, and decorating tastes of Gilded Age America and the art nouveau era in permanent and special exhibitions.[3]

Richard H. Driehaus Museum
Established2003[1]
Location40 East Erie Street
Chicago, Illinois
United States
Coordinates41°53′40″N 87°37′36″W
TypeDecorative Arts Museum
Public transit accessCTA bus routes:
Routes 3, 10, 26, 36, 125, 143, 146–148 and 151
Chicago 'L':
Chicago Station
Grand Station
Websitewww.driehausmuseum.org

The interiors are replete with marble, onyx, carved exotic and domestic woods, glazed tiles, and stained glass.[3][4] On display are original furnishings from the Nickerson era along with American and European decorative arts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including art nouveau furnishings and a number of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany.[5] The museum is named after its founder, the Chicago businessman, philanthropist, and art collector Richard H. Driehaus. The artworks on display in the museum are selections from the private Driehaus Collection of Fine and Decorative Arts.[3]

History

The mansion was designed for Samuel M. Nickerson by one of Chicago's earliest prominent architects, Edward J. Burling of the architectural firm of Burling & Whitehouse.[6] Construction took four years and cost $450,000; it was reportedly the most expensive and elaborate private residence in Chicago at the time of its completion in 1883.[7]

The Nickerson family lived in the mansion from 1883 to 1900. They sold the house and property to the paper magnate Lucius George Fisher, who lived there until his death in 1916. In 1919, a group of prominent Chicagoans purchased the home and presented the deed as a gift to the American College of Surgeons, who used the building as administrative space until 1965.[4] From 1965 to 2003 it was leased by the College of Surgeons to various tenants.[8]

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and designated a Chicago landmark on September 28, 1977.[6]

In 2003 Richard H. Driehaus acquired the building, established it as a museum, and commissioned the building's award-winning restoration[9] with a vision to preserve and promote classical architecture and design.[5] The Driehaus Museum opened to the public in June 2008.

Collection
looking up and towards the main stairwell from the first floor
Looking down from the second floor
The Main Hall of the Driehaus Museum. The hall incorporates 17 types of marble as well as onyx and alabaster in its design, which gave rise to its nickname The Marble Palace in the late 19th century. On the left, looking up and towards the main stairwell from the first floor. On the right, looking down into the first floor from the second.

Inside the museum, objects from the Driehaus Collection are displayed as a complement to the preserved interiors and some original furnishings.[3]

The Driehaus Collection is one of the significant collections in the country of works by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his associated firms. Richard H. Driehaus acquired his first Tiffany work, a stained-glass window, in 1978, and in the years since his collection has grown to include over 1,500 objects, including Favrile glass, vases, furniture, accessories, and stained and leaded-glass windows.[10]

Highlights of the Tiffany objects on permanent display in the Driehaus Museum include a set of brightly colored iridescent stemware; large fire screen with iridescent chain mail tiles; unique centerpiece lamp with a base of eight large nautilus shells; and green blown-glass humidor.[5]

Among the museum's collection of furniture is a suite of carved neo-Empire maple chairs by George A. Schastey & Co. of New York, one of the original decorators of the Nickerson House; a rare Chickering and Sons grand piano from the Driehaus Collection; and a Nickerson-era Herter Brothers extension dining table of quarter-sawn white oak.[8]

Other highlights include a brass chandelier from Thurlow Lodge with boars’ heads, hunting arrows, and hunting horns; Émile Gallé vases; Sèvres vases; gilt-bronze mantel clock by Deniére; paintings by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; and a dramatic Venetian marble sculpture by Oscar Spalmach depicting the mythical figures of Cupid and Psyche.[3][8]

The second floor of the Driehaus Museum, formerly the living quarters of the Nickerson family, is more sparsely decorated and is designated as exhibition space.

The third floor consists of a ballroom where most of the museum's public programs take place and a lounge where visitors can sit on an Art Nouveau furniture suite by Edward Colonna.

Special exhibitions

The museum's first exhibition, Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection, opened in September 2013. It included over 60 objects—including windows, lamps, accessories, vases, and furnishings—by Louis Comfort Tiffany and his associated firms. and ran through 2014.[10]

An exhibition of Gilded Age and Art Nouveau jewelry opened on February 14, 2015 and will run through January 3, 2016. Entitled Maker & Muse, it includes work by jewelers including Clara Barck, Liberty of London, Tiffany and René Lalique, as well as a pendant given to Emilie Flöge by Gustav Klimt.[11][12][13]

Programs and tours
The Sculpture Gallery. Note the elaborate stained glass.

The museum offers guided tours daily in addition to general admission.

The following themed tours are also offered on a seasonal basis: the living history-style Servants’ Tour[14] featuring the mansions’ servants’ quarters and led by a fictional housekeeper; McCormickville Walking Tour of the surrounding historic neighborhood; and evening Twilight Tour discussing how the Nickersons and other Gilded Age Chicago elite socialized and spent their evening hours.[5]

The Driehaus Museum also regularly produces public programs—including concerts, lectures, and family programs—that align with its mission to promote architectural preservation, the decorative arts, and Gilded Age culture. Examples of regular programs include a quarterly jazz concert featuring members of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra and the Samuel M. Nickerson Lecture Series, which features scholars in late 19th and early 20th century design, architecture, and decorative arts.

The museum operated the Driehaus Gallery of Stained Glass at the Navy Pier. The gallery showcased eleven Tiffany stained glass windows that included ecclesiastical, landscape and figural themes, and a large fire screen. The gallery closed in 2017.

  • Fireplace
  • Fireplace
  • Glass detail
  • Tiffany Glass on display in the museum
  • Second Floor
  • Parquet floor detail
  • Chandelier
  • Glass detail
  • Door lock detail
  • Fireplace sculpture detail
  • Tile detail
  • Tile detail
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References
  1. "Driehaus Museum opens: Modernists need not enter". Time Out Chicago. 2008. Retrieved 2013-05-21.
  2. Reid, Kerry (October 30, 2013). "Driehaus exhibit shows off the glory of Tiffany pieces". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 23 October 2014.
  3. Spak, Kara (19 September 2012). "It's all in the details at Driehaus mansion museum", Chicago Sun-Times, retrieved 2013-04-25.
  4. Historic American Buildings Survey, Nickerson House HABS-IL-1052. June and July, 1967. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C. 20540. Accessed 2013-04-25
  5. Dwyer, Ann Elizabeth (03 November 2011). "In the gloaming, Gilded Age glamour", Chicago Tribune, retrieved 2013-04-25.
  6. Chicago Landmarks: Nickerson House. City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. 2003. Retrieved 2013-04-23.
  7. "Residence of Samuel M. Nickerson; Burling and Whitehouse, architects"(February 26, 1881), American Architect IX p. 103.
  8. Sharoff, Robert (October 2007). "A Classic Act", Chicago Magazine
  9. Cosgrove, Suzanne (7 September 2008). “Recognition of 22 jobs well done”, Chicago Tribune, accessed 2013-04-23.
  10. Rahman, Nancy (17 April 2013). "The Richard H. Driehaus Museum in Chicago to Exhibit 60 Works by One of America’s Most Celebrated Artists Beginning in September 2013", Haute Living, accessed 2013-04-25.
  11. Vitali, Marc (17 February 2015). "Jewelry Exhibition Crowns Historic Mansion". WTTW TV. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  12. Telfer, Tori (4 November 2014). "Art Jewelry Is Coming to the Driehaus Museum". Chicago Magazine. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  13. "The Driehaus Museum Presents: Maker & Muse: Women and Early Twentieth Century Art Jewelry". Artfix Daily. 15 January 2015. Retrieved 24 February 2015.
  14. Nusser, Madeline (2012 July 12). "Help Wanted: The Summer Servants' Tour", TimeOut Chicago, accessed 2013-04-25.

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