Blog
The Young Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson: A Brief History
September 10, 2013“For the last five years Mr. Nickerson has been considered one of the choice fish in the social swim,” wrote a New York Telegraph correspondent, “and all sorts of bait have been thrown at him.”
[From the Collection] Landscape by Agnes Northrop
August 06, 2013As we draw nearer to the opening of the Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibition, this work—created by one of the artists he employed—is a fitting one to stop and enjoy for a moment. On view in the Drawing Room on the mansion’s first floor, it is an elegant and simple painting with quite a history behind it, one which has only recently come to light.
[Q&A] Introducing the Museum Store!
July 12, 2013The Driehaus Museum Store is celebrating its grand opening this Saturday, July 13. Here is a sneak peek of just a few of the beautiful items you’ll find inside, as well as a conversation with Corie Walcott, the Driehaus Museum Store Coordinator.
Help Wanted! Q&A with the Actors of the Servants’ Tour
July 08, 2013Help Wanted: The Summer Servants’ Tour, the Driehaus Museum’s first living history tour, debuted in 2012 and has become one of our most popular programs.
[Speaking of Architecture] The Life and Work of Edward J. Burling
June 28, 2013Edward J. Burling was, arguably, the first great architect in this city of great architects.
[From the Collection] Tiffany Studios Humidor, c. 1902-10
June 17, 2013This fanciful blown-glass work by Tiffany Studios always stirs the curiosity of visitors to the Reception Room. Despite appearing to be just an objet d’art to admire, it is designed to serve a function—as a humidor, used to preserve tobacco in an airtight space.
“He Thought it was Architecture Run Crazy”
June 08, 2013The Driehaus Museum officially turns five years old today.
[Q&A] with Dr. Susan Braden, Author of ‘The Architecture of Leisure’
May 20, 2013Henry Flagler and Henry Plant had much in common. Both came from humble American beginnings; were undereducated relative to their future self-made success; adopted New York City as home;
Party Like It’s 1888
May 15, 2013We are so inspired by the image of Robert Redford as the lovelorn Jay Gatsby, standing on a Newport mansion’s balcony—an image that combines a character of the Lost Generation with the architecture of the Gilded Age—that we decided to show the 1974 film in our own Gilded Age mansion as the first of our new Mix and Mingle at the Movies program series.
The Burnham Plan and the End of McCormickville
May 07, 2013The gleaming White City of the World’s Columbian Exposition made Daniel H. Burnham, architect, into a city planner.
[Q&A] with Erin Feher of California Home+Design Magazine
April 24, 2013Last week we welcomed Erin Feher, the journalist and author of a forthcoming book about San Francisco’s residential architectural heritage, to the Museum as part of the Nickerson Lecture Series.
[You Asked] What is That Other Mansion?
April 20, 2013You Asked… What is the story behind the peach-colored mansion catercorner to the Driehaus Museum?
Announcing ‘Louis Comfort Tiffany: Treasures from the Driehaus Collection’
April 16, 2013Remember last week, when we told you that our second-floor galleries are intended to someday play host to decorative arts exhibitions? Well, the time has (almost) come.
[You Asked] Why Aren’t There Beds in the Nickerson Bedrooms?
April 11, 2013Today’s blog is part of an occasional series dedicated to answering visitors’ questions.
[Speaking of Architecture] The Story of H. H. Richardson
April 04, 2013A beautiful Romanesque house was completed for John and Frances Glessner in 1887, just five years after the dust had settled from construction on our Nickerson mansion.
[Featured Designer] Louis Majorelle (and the “Les Orchidées” Vitrine)
March 24, 2013Louis Majorelle made a splash at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900 at a precise and brief moment in European art history.
[Q&A] with Rolf Achilles of the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows
March 19, 2013It’s become a Nickerson Lecture Series tradition to welcome a local scholar for the first lecture of the season.
Singing Women’s Praises
March 01, 2013In the late 1970s, celebrating women started with International Women’s Day on March 8.
Behind the Scenes of the Samuel M. Nickerson Lecture Series
February 25, 2013Named for the man who commissioned the historic mansion the Driehaus Museum lives in today, the Samuel M. Nickerson Lecture Series is one of our most popular programs.
The 2013 Driehaus Prize
February 18, 2013It’s not just the entertainment industry that has an awards season.
A Princely Estate: Domaine de Chantilly, France
February 11, 2013The Driehaus Museum has three sister institutions in Europe, each simply resplendent and embodying the highest ideals of preservation and classical architecture, just as we strive to do here in Chicago.
Inspired by Art
February 04, 2013Remember The Polar Express? Jumanji? The Mysteries of Harris Burdick?
Edison’s Bulbs
January 28, 2013Patenting his electric lightbulb would, more than Edison’s 1,093 other inventions, cement his spot as American inventor extraordinaire.
[From the Collection] Jewel- and Gem-Set Inkstand, 1864
January 21, 2013This inkstand from the Driehaus Collection packs some of the most eye-catchingly elaborate designs and materials into a small and functional space.
Director’s Note: Looking Back at 2012
December 23, 2012Each year since the Driehaus Museum opened in 2008 has come with its own sense of growth and accomplishment. But by all accounts, 2012 was a particularly wonderful, milestone-filled year.
WBEZ Architecture Critic Lee Bey Talks with ‘Lost Chicago’ Authors
December 17, 2012The following blog post by WBEZ architecture critic Lee Bey, originally titled “New ‘Lost Chicago’ Book Explores the City That Once Was,” was published November 29, 2012, on his blog,.
[Speaking of Architecture] The Mihrab Oriel Window
December 11, 2012This was a corner room on the floor just below the children’s, and the beauty of it was this window—an oriel window,—projecting beyond the wall, as such windows do, and so exactly at the corner that you could see, so to say, three ways at once when you were standing in it . . . a charming watch tower.”
Anna Karenina: How America’s Gilded Age Social Customs Mirrored Russia’s
December 04, 2012I have always been struck, while reading Anna Karenina (or, more recently, while watching Leo Tolstoy’s 1873-1878 tale played out by Jude Law and Keira Knightley in sumptuous costumes in this year’s film version) by the similarities it shows between upper-class late 19th-century Russia and late 19th-century America.
[From the Collection] Herter Brothers Dining Table, 1883
November 19, 2012This Herter Brothers dining table is a significant piece in our collection, for its beauty as well as its history.
Thorstein Veblen and the ‘Theory of the Leisure Class’
November 14, 2012Typically (and stereotypically), the Gilded Age is known for: 1) Money and industry, and 2) People who made a lot of money in industry.
The Collection of the White House
November 06, 2012The White House’s first work of art was acquired in 1800. It was a painting, and it depicted, perhaps not surprisingly, that most beloved forefather of forefathers, George Washington.
Ghoulies, Ghosties & Long-Legged Beasties: Horror Fiction of the Victorian Era
October 29, 2012One might be surprised to discover a giant black spider attacking a Gilded Age fine and decorative arts museum. But yes, at the corner of Erie and Wabash, a colossal arachnid is navigating the exterior of the historic Nickerson Mansion.
[Q&A] with Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute
October 25, 2012Last week the Driehaus Museum welcomed Anna Tobin D’Ambrosio, director and chief curator at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Art Institute in Utica, New York, and the final lecturer of the 2012 Nickerson Lecture Series season.
119 Years since 1893: A Visit to Jackson Park
October 22, 2012Next week 119 years ago, with a crisp chill entering the air, the closing ceremonies concluded, the crowds began piling into Pullman cars to head back to their own parts of America, and the World Columbian Exposition’s dismantling began.
After the Fire, Quarries Dynamited
October 15, 2012The woman The Wire called a “bassoon colossus” treated us and our visitors here on Saturday to live performances of a work inspired by the Driehaus Museum’s unique architecture and history.
Out at Last: The Great Chicago Fire of 1871
October 10, 2012On the morning of October 10, 1871, the flames had finally stopped. What was left was, well, hardly anything. About a four-mile swath had been cleared in two days, everything was in ruins, and the conflagration would go down in history books as an infamous disaster for this new, bustling city: the Great Chicago Fire.
[You Asked] Didn’t This Building Used to be Black?
October 04, 2012You Asked… Didn’t the Nickerson Mansion used to be black? And how did conservationists manage to clean the exterior?
[Q&A] with Dr. Caroline Hellman of City University of New York
September 24, 2012This year marks the 150th birthday of Edith Wharton, and Dr. Caroline Hellman—associate professor of English in New York—graciously accepted our invitation to speak about the writer and interior designer for our Samuel M. Nickerson Lecture Series.
An Architect’s Legacy: Sir John Soane’s Museum, London
September 18, 2012The Driehaus Museum has three sister institutions in Europe, each simply resplendent and embodying the highest ideals of preservation and classical architecture, just as we strive to do here in Chicago.
Open House Chicago, Oct. 13-14
September 10, 2012On Saturday, October 13 and Sunday, October 14, the Driehaus Museum will open its doors and offer free self-guided admission as just one of 150 participants in Open House Chicago 2012.
[Featured Member] Becca Brown, Young Preservationist
September 04, 2012This blog is part of an occasional series featuring Museum members. To share your story, contact membership@driehausmuseum.org.
The Other McCormickville: Lincoln Park’s Seminary Townhouses
August 28, 2012Ah, Lincoln Park. Here, leafy trees offer dappled shade to quaint, historic residential buildings aligned in cozy, shoulder-to-shoulder rows.
Going to Graceland
August 07, 2012The land allotted for Graceland Cemetery in 1860 was well above Chicago’s northernmost dotted line, by about two miles: a suburban ‘new city of the dead,’ as they called it. (The recently-exhumed Lincoln Park being the ‘old’ city of the dead in that scenario.)
Celebrating Chicago’s Architecture: Walking Tours with the CAF
July 23, 2012The Chicago Architecture Foundation celebrates Chicago architecture with such a wide reach that we couldn’t resist giving our members the chance to enjoy what the nonprofit has to offer. So all of our members get a Buy One, Get One Free Walking Tour benefit to use with CAF.