The Chicago Academy of Sciences. 31 



borrowed the additional amount required, securing 1 the 

 lender by mortgage upon the whole property. They 

 estimated that the income from the rents would provide 

 a sinking fund by which the original indebtedness would 

 be paid when it became due, besides furnishing in part 

 the means of defraying the current expenses. Looking 

 to the future, they expected that ultimately, after the 

 cost of the building had been met and the mortgage 

 released, there would be an ample and well secured en- 

 dowment, and future prosperity would thus be assured. 

 The plan proved disastrous, as the area of trade did not 

 increase to such an extent as to include these premises, 

 and the long continued financial depression, which be- 

 gan in 1873, followed. The new building was unoccu- 

 pied for a long time, and the income derived from it did 

 not even pay the interest on the mortgage; so, after 

 a term of years, by the processes of law, the whole 

 property was lost. 



When the Wabash avenue property passed from the 

 ownership of the Academy, new friends appeared. It 

 still had its collections and books, but its losses had a 

 depressing effect on its members. Hope for the future 

 was not entirely gone, but rested in the minds of only a 

 few. In 1886, when the sale was finally forced, an 

 offer was received from and an arrangement made with 

 the managers of the Interstate Exposition, by which 

 the collections were to have space for exhibition in 

 their building, then situated in the Lake Front park, 

 at the foot of Adams street, where the Art Institute 

 now stands. For the privilege of having this attrac- 

 tion in their building, the managers agreed to furnish 

 an office for the curator, where the business of the 

 Academy could be transacted. They also agreed to 

 pay his salary. 



The conditions under which the collections were 

 placed during the next six years could hardly have been 

 worse. They were subjected to grime, smoke and dust; 

 to danger from fire and the untutored handling of a 



