Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America

Buckingham, Kate S., d. 1937 print view role Collector Patron dates 1858-1937 city Chicago state IL other cities Pittsfield, 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 02/14/2025 10:12:28 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 «  back