Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Buckingham, Kate S., d. 1937

printer
print view
role Collector Patron
dates 1858-1937
city Chicago
stateIL
other citiesPittsfield, MA;
sex F
historical notes Kate Sturges Buckingham was a philanthropist, art collector and patron. She was the daughter of grain elevator and banking mogul Ebenezer Buckingham (1829 – 1911) and sister to the art collector Clarence Buckingham (1854-1913).

Buckingham gifted her art collection of Japanese prints, etchings and engravings, Chinese pottery and porcelain, Persian miniatures, Chinese ritual bronzes, Italian silver and English lusterware to the Chicago Art Institute. The collection included, among other works of art, Sharaku prints, Sung dynasty Ting ware, Lung Chüan bronzes, a T’ang pilgrim bottle and Chün ware. The Asian art collection was given in the name of her sister as the Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection.

Buckingham furnished the Art Institutes Gothic room in the memory of her sister Lucy Maud Buckingham, with a medieval collection that included Architectural art, stone and wood sculpture, furniture and tapestries from the late Gothic period (late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries).

She finished the Art Institutes Jacobean Room in the name of her parents with paneled oaken walls, furniture, ornamental ceiling and portraits by Cranach, Maas, Ewert, and Porbus as a gift from herself and siblings in memory of their parents, Lucy Sturges and Ebenezer Buckingham.

Buckingham commissioned a fountain in honor of her brother, Clarence, and designated the Chicago Art Institute its custodian and granted $300,000 for its maintenance. She gave a $1,000,000 gift to Chicago for a statue of Alexander Hamilton in Grant Park and left a $2,000,000 gift to the Art Institute of Chicago.
decades
of activity
1910-1920
1920-1930
1930-1940
updated 03/22/2024 12:09:32
bibliographic
search
Search Frick Art Reference Library Catalog
Search Photoarchive
Search Worldcat
Search Library of Congress Name Authority File (LCNAF)
Search Virtual International Authority File (VIAF)
Archives/Repository Collection Title Collection Details
Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute
Library and Archives
Papers of William J. Collins, 1902-1958. see details...

see also:
Buckingham, Clarence, d. 1913