STUDIES ON MUSEUMS AND KINDRED INSTITUTIONS. 453 



V. Aj^plicd f<e!(')ieei<. — Engiiieering-, agriculture, domestic economy, 

 trade and transportation, chemical technology, manufactures and 

 trades, building, landscape gardening, architecture, drawing, design- 

 ing, etc., photography.'^ 



It was concluded, awaiting the time when sufficient capital should 

 he collected to admit of building a house, to rent quarters, and very 

 suitable ones were found in one of the many great business houses in 

 the heart of the cit}". There was chosen the sixth story of a new 

 addition to the wholesale house of Marshall Field & Co. ,*^ near the 

 principal business centers, the public library, and the art institute. 



Recently (in 1900) a portion of the tifthstor}- was added. The nine- 

 storied building, designed by the architect D. H. Burnham in 1893 (Plate 

 24), is a vast rectangle 148 feet long and 100 feet wide, with an inner 

 court. The entire floor was specially fitted in an extremely convenient 

 manner for the John Crerar Library b}^ the architects Shepley, Rutan 

 & Coolidge, who designed the art institute and the public librar3^ The 

 reading room (Plate 25), looking toward the east, is 85 feet long b}' 50 

 feet wide and has 75 seats; the principal library hall (Plate 26) is 88 

 feet long by 42 feet wide and looks toward the south. The inner court 

 being- of too small dimensions (72 by 40 feet) for the height of the 



« The complete scheme has under these 5 divisions 77 subdivisions instead of the 

 39 here mentioned. It is based on the Dewey decimal system. 



'' The proprietor of this vast business is Mr. Marshall Field, the ]Msecenas of the 

 Field Columbian Museum, which bears his name (see p. 410), and one of the 

 iM?ecenates of the University of Chicago (see p. 491). The house carries on a retail 

 and a wholesale business, the latter in an enormous building in Adams street, made 

 after the plans of Richardson with striking architectural features, the former on a 

 corner of State and Washington streets, the new building in which the Crerar library 

 is installed and which is connected with the old building, being on the corner of 

 Washington street and Wabash avenue. In the wholesale department 5,000 persons 

 are employed; in the retail bazaar 4,000, which number, after the completion of a 

 second new building, is to be increased by 2,000. The fittings and furniture of the 

 rooms are prominent, the mahogany cases are of the best make; order and neatness 

 prevail. The building is fireproof, with external iron shutters except for the ground 

 fioor. One may judge of the refinpment that rules here by the fact that extra articles 

 of food for diabetics can be found on the tastefully designed menu card of the lunch 

 room which is frequented by hundreds of persons and open daily from 8.30 to 5 

 o'clock, and where Ijoth hot and cold articles of food can be obtained (there are more 

 than 150 dishes and nonalcoholic beverages, from 5 cents to 40 cents). At the pres- 

 ent thne the firm is erecting on the corner of State and Randolph streets, adjoining 

 the old building, corner of State and Washington streets, after the design of the 

 Architect Graham, a palace of 12 stories out of white granite, so that the State street 

 front of the establishment will be 425 long. This front will be ornamented with 

 granite Ionic pillars from 30 to 70 feet high, and the vestibule will be lined with 

 Carrara marble. The cost will reach $1,500,000. Everything will be fitted up with 

 the most recent improvements. [Now completed, 1903.] During my visit in 1899 

 tlu' firm had half of the street in front of the house (about 3S feet broad) asphalted 

 at its own expense, because the pavement, as is usual in Chicago, was bad antl the 

 city would do nothing. ]\Iarshall Field & Co. wished in this way to give an 

 example for the emulation of others and also to remind the ofiujals of their duty. 



