Martin Antoine Ryerson was an American lawyer, businessman, philanthropist and art collector. He was also a lumber manufacturer and corporate director. He became the richest man in Chicago by the age of 36.
Background
Martin Antoine Ryerson was descended from Dutch ancestors who came to America about 1646. His father, Martin Ryerson, born near Paterson, N. J. , went to Michigan at sixteen, where he worked for Indian traders at Grand Rapids and Muskegon and laid the foundation of a substantial fortune by purchasing large timber tracts near Muskegon. As his third wife he married Mary A. Campau of Grand Rapids and there young Martin was born. In childhood he accompanied his parents to Chicago, where an office of the lumber company had been opened in 1851.
Education
He attended the Chicago public schools until he was twelve, when his parents placed him in a boarding school in Paris. He remained in school abroad for seven years, going to Geneva when the Franco-Prussian War broke out. On his return to the United States he entered the Harvard Law School, where he was graduated in 1878.
Career
Ryerson began practice with the Chicago law firm of Dexter, Herrick & Allen, but a severe illness and his father's urging soon persuaded him to forsake the confinement of a law office for the lumber business.
He took charge of the Chicago office and on his father's death in 1887 assumed control of the business of Martin Ryerson & Company. He was also a director of the Elgin National Watch Company and of leading Chicago banks, and a trustee of the O. S. A. Sprague Memorial Institute from its beginning.
In the early nineties he retired from active business with a fortune sufficient to allow him to devote most of his time and money thenceforth to the Art Institute, the Field Museum, and the University of Chicago. His connection with the Art Institute began when he became governing member in 1887. He served as trustee from 1890 until his death, as vice-president, 1902-25, and president, 1925-26, and was then made honorary president.
He was a serious student of art, and with Charles L. Hutchinson, president until his death in 1924, formulated the policies of the Institute, maintained its standards of acquisitions, and fostered its educational departments. He built and endowed its Ryerson Library for the study of art, and by his will bequeathed it his fine collections, previously loaned--not only of paintings, but of prints, textiles, tapestries, porcelains, and furniture--together with a considerable endowment.
He was one of the incorporators of the Field Museum of Natural History, a trustee from its organization in 1893, and first vice-president from 1894 until his death; to it he gave freely and generously of his fortune both during his lifetime and in his will.
He was a member of the original board of trustees of the University of Chicago selected in 1890; in 1892 he became president of the board and served in that capacity until his voluntary retirement in 1922. He was made an honorary trustee in 1931. Here again, the record is eloquent of his sound judgment, his insight into educational policies, his zeal for promoting the artistic and material interests of the young institution.
His gift of Ryerson Physical Laboratory in memory of his father was supplemented by funds for equipment and research to assist the work of Albert A. Michelson and his colleagues, and by his will, after the death of his widow the University was to share with the Art Institute and the Field Museum the sum of approximately six million dollars. Notable among his many other gifts were those of a park (the farm on which he was born) and a public library to his birthplace, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Achievements
As a trustee of the University of Chicago, Ryerson made large charitable contributions for the construction of buildings on campus. He established artistic standards and architectural ideals which influenced the design of the University buildings and the plan of its quadrangles, while under his chairmanship the University grew from a modest beginning to a corporation whose assets exceeded $50, 000, 000.
He bequeathed his extensive art collection to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Connections
Ryerson was married on October 26, 1881, to Caroline Hutchinson, daughter of Charles and Emily (Smith) Hutchinson, formerly of Gloversville, N. Y. There were no children.
