1912–13 Volume 37 No 1–5 - Phi Delta Theta Scroll Archive

noTHE SCROLLis conducted, and there too some of the most notable work now beingdone is shown. It probably is another confirmation of Carl Lindin'sobservation, that the same city which slaughters most shouldbe in another way the most creative. The Art Institute, whose greystone walls have been encased in layers of soot from the IllinoisCentral trains, is situated on Michigan Avenue overlooking LakeMichigan. Not far from the center of the city, its simple AmericanizedGreek architecture is an inviting contrast to the piles ofoffices across the boulevard.Many of the collections of the Institute are notable. A large numberof casts of pieces of Greek, Roman and medieval sculpture areshown in the statuary halls, while some of the best work of Americansculptors is exhibited. St. Gaudens, Daniel G. French and LoradoTaft are largely represented.The most valuable single collection contains the eighteen paintingsof George Inness, a recent donation to Chicago. In the Galleryflf Old Masters Sir Joshua Reynolds, Peter Paul Rubens, FranzHals, Rembrandt, Teniers, Van DyCk, and many other masterspirits of Europe are well represented. Of the more recent art areoil paintings of Corot, Daubigny, Constable, Millet, Rousseau andBonheur, while William M. Chase, Whistler, Joseph Pennell, otherwell known Americans, are seen in pointings and etchings.-Across Michigan Avenue from the Institute is the finest row ofbuildings in Chicago and one of the most splendid assembled anywhere.Luxurious ofiice structures, clubs and hotels present a massivefront which looms up like the wall of some mythical city as Chicagobecomes visible to travelers on the lake. Far south is the BlackstoneHotel, said by its admirers to be the most perfect example of hotelarchitecture in America, and slightly northward are the Congress andAuditorium hotels, within which political plans have been brewedfor many national conventions. Here last June chieftains decreedthe wreck of the Republican Party; and two- months later in thesame rooms the new Progressive Party was born. Famous as a socialresort as well as for its political associations, few buildings in theUnited States have played a more intimate part in the nation's historythan has the Congress Hotel.North of these hotels is a row of splendid buildings, the mostcostly of which, perhaps, is the Gas Building. North further is theUniversity Club built in a simple English Gothic style, the mostdignified club building probably in the city.Eight miles south and ten miles north are Chicago's great universities,while scattered here and there about the city are smallerinstitutions of learning scarcely less well known. The new HarperLibrary on the Midway is one of the handsomest library buildings inthe world with more than a half million books and pamphlets. Thelibrary of the University of Chicago represents the most rapid growthin the world. The University buildings reproduce many of the famous