Three Arts Club of Chicago records, 1914-2004

  • IdentificationMSTACRNO
  • TitleThree Arts Club of Chicago records MSTACRNO
  • PublisherSpecial Collections
  • LanguageEnglish
  • RepositorySpecial Collections
  • Physical Description79.0 Linear feet
  • Date1914-2004
  • AbstractThe Three Arts Club of Chicago was an organization offering support and temporary residence for women painters, actors and musicians. The organization was incorporated in Illinois in 1912 and opened its first residence the same year. A building commissioned by the Three Arts Club and designed by the architectural firm of Holabird and Roche was finished in 1914. This building, located at 1300 N. Dearborn St., operated as a residence continuously until 2003. This collection documents the history of the Three Arts Club in Chicago, with some documentation of its six sister organizations across the U.S. and Europe.
  • OriginationThree Arts Club (Chicago, Ill.).

Old Resource ID was TACR

The origin of Three Arts Club of Chicago was a meeting of prominent Chicago residents in 1911. The cultural and social figures in attendance, among them Jane Addams, were inspired by the example of the Three Arts Club of New York, which was founded in 1904 to offer support and residence to women in the arts. The driving force behind the early years of the Club in Chicago was Gwethalyn Jones. Her father donated the land for the club's building on Dearborn St. and loaned the money to design and construct it, an undertaking which fell to the architectural firm of Holabird and Roche.

A grand opening for the building was held in 1914. In 1924, Jones donated the Dearborn St. building to the Club. The building served as a residence continuously until 2003.

Financial difficulties culminated in 1980 in a difference of opinion on the Three Arts Club board of directors over the future of the organization. A challenge to a vote of the majority of the board to suspend the club's residency program and sell the building was successfully carried out. A campaign to save the Three Arts Club was launched and the residency program survived for thirteen years.

After the last of the residents moved out in 2003, the building underwent extensive renovation. In 2007 the building was sold to a developer. The organization continues to exist as a grantmaking body for the arts.

Some of the blueprints in Series IV are very fragile, and patrons may view them only with the permission of a Special Collections supervisor.

The collection is divided into nine series organized by the staff of the Three Arts Club. Series I, the largest single part of the collection, contains the administrative record of residents of the Three Arts Club. Series II contains photographs and other visual media of Three Arts Club residents and events.

Access to the residents' records in Series I are closed for a period of 75 years from the time of their departure from the Three Arts Club.

Three Arts Club of Chicago records, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago

  • NamesThree Arts Club (Chicago, Ill.). -- Archives
  • Subject
    • Actresses.
    • Artist colonies.
    • Chicago Community Organizations.
    • Midwest Women's History.
    • Women artists.
    • Women musicians.
    • Women painters.
    • Women--Societies and clubs.