Lorado Taft and Miss I Will
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Every once in a while I change my social media avatar to a bust of Miss I Will that totally amuses me. She’s so noble and so unaware that there’s a bird nesting in her hair. It’s supposed to be a Phoenix arising from the flames. I’ve written about Miss I Will before.
I often also switch to this avatar in keeping with the inspirational theme:
So imagine my shock to discover that the Miss I Will bust was the handiwork of the great Lorado Taft! In December 1892, my favorite Chicago newspaper, The Inter Ocean, had a long article about the progress being made by the Lorado Taft studio. There was a sketch of Lorado Taft hard at work in his studio—and there she is! Miss I Will! I checked in Lorado Taft: The Chicago Years by Allen Stuart Weller, and there she is in the catalog of works.
The article itself was a fascinating look at the backgrounds and handiwork of his team of assistants. When Lorado Taft looked at the timeline and realized he was in trouble in completing his contracts with the Horticulture and Illinois Buildings, he asked head honcho Daniel Burnham if he could hire five of his women students from the Art Institute as his assistants. Burnham famously replied, “hire anyone, even white rabbits, if they can get the work done." They of course embraced the term and became famous as the White Rabbits. The Inter Ocean, a huge fan of Lorado Taft’s, wrote up biographies for them and bragged about their talents and work, though they were in their early twenties. The Fair and this promotion by Taft and the Inter Ocean launched their careers, especially Bessie Potter
and Janet Scudder
Julia Bracken who was 22 created—in marble—Illinois Greeting the Nations for the Illinois Building (a statue that still stands in Springfield).
I don’t know yet in what direction my Lorado Taft story is going to go, but I’m so glad to learn about the White Rabbits, a term I first heard when taking this tour with Chicago Movie Tours, which I totally recommend: From Fairground to Film Set
By the way, Miss I Will had a lot more fun in 1933 than in 1893.
Wonderful talk this Sunday!
Do come from 2-3 this Sunday afternoon to meet Sherman “Dilla” Thomas. He started talking about Chicago history on Tik Tok to reach his daughters and her friends and it blew up to an amazing career as THE historian of the South Side. He runs bus tours of the South Side from the DuSable Museum called Mahogany Tours. He’s been on national TV and WTTW, so it’s terrific that he’s coming to Hyde Park.
The Early Hyde Park murals
I’m very proud of this one—the story of what a major controversy the murals caused during urban renewal and the influence of Bill Walker, a/the founder of the public art movement in Chicago. And no, you haven’t already read it if you haven’t gone to the Herald to check it out. ;-)