Background
Hutchinson was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1854 to Benjamin P. Hutchinson and Sarah (née Ingalls) Hutchinson.
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Hutchinson was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1854 to Benjamin P. Hutchinson and Sarah (née Ingalls) Hutchinson.
He was educated in the Chicago public schools and graduated from high school in 1873.
He entered his father's office as a clerk and in 1875 the firm of B. P. Hutchinson & Son, commission merchants, was organized. The firm continued to operate until 1889. Charles learned the grain and provision business, was a member of the Board of Trade, and at the age of thirty-four became president of the organization. He was not, however, inclined toward speculation, and his business life was most closely identified with the Corn Exchange Bank which his father had established in 1870. He acquired a one-fourth interest in the bank in 1880, and after serving as assistant cashier, became president in 1886. In this position he remained until 1898, when he voluntarily retired to become vicepresident. The principal business of the bank was in the financing of the grain and meat-packing business of the city.
Hutchinson seems to have developed early in life a love for cultural and civic pursuits. At the age of fourteen he began by raising more than a hundred dollars for a newsboys' home. Having a natural love of the beautiful, he cultivated a taste for fine art in painting and architecture. As a young man in 1879, he met with others to initiate the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts which was shortly to become the Art Institute. With one other he raised the $60, 000 necessary to start the Academy on its way. In 1882 he was made president of the Art Institute and remained in this office until his death, a period of forty-two years. He was active in adding to the institute's collection of paintings; donated additional space and endowment; and at his death bequeathed to it his valuable personal collection of works of art.
He acted as chairman of the fine arts committee of the World's Columbian Exposition and was chiefly responsible for the building of the new art museum. He was also actively interested in a hundred or more different organizations the aim of which was the advancement of human welfare. He regularly gave away half of his personal income and collected additional funds from his friends to support the enterprises in which he was interested. As a member of the Board of South Park Commissioners, 1907-22, he was active in planning and carrying out the improvement of the lake front of Chicago, and in building small parks in congested residence districts. His service to education was identified most closely with the University of Chicago. He served as treasurer and member of the board of trustees from the inception of the new university in 1893 until his death. The fine Gothic architecture of the buildings owes much to his influence as chairman of the committee on buildings.
He was a prominent Chicago business leader and philanthropist who is best remembered today as the founding and long-time president of the Art Institute of Chicago. At a time when successful accomplishment was measured largely by the accumulation of material wealth, Hutchinson made an important contribution to the social, artistic, and educational life of Chicago.
(Excerpt from The New Altar: A Service Book for Sunday Sch...)
He married, on May 26, 1881, Frances Kinsley of Chicago.
