Daniel K. Ludwig

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Lore & Background

Florence Lathrop was born on October 19, 1858, in Alexandria, Virginia, to Jedediah Hyde Lathrop and Mariana Bryan Lathrop. Her siblings included Bryan Lathrop, Barbour Lathrop, and Minna Lathrop. On her mother's side, she was a member of the Barbour family; her maternal grandmother was Mary Barbour Bryan, daughter of Thomas Barbour and sister of James Barbour and Philip P. Barbour. Her family left Alexandria for Chicago, Illinois, before the Civil War, settling in Cottage Hill (today's Elmhurst, Illinois), where her uncle Thomas Barbour Bryan had lived since 1852. She was privately tutored at home and later sent to Paris, France, for four years to finish her education. On October 29, 1879, she married Henry Field at the Byrd's Nest Chapel in Elmhurst. After two years in Paris, they returned to Chicago. She gave birth to daughters Minna (1882), Florence (1883), and Gladys (1888, died at eight months). Henry Field died unexpectedly in 1890. In 1893, she created the Henry Field memorial trust, loaning 44 oil paintings to the Art Institute of Chicago, and commissioned two lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys for the museum's main entrance. On June 6, 1893, she married Thomas Nelson Page at the same chapel. They moved to Washington, D.C., and spent summers at their cottage "Rock Ledge" in York Harbor, Maine. She donated to public health nursing programs, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Art Institute of Chicago, and endowed the Page-Barbour Lectures at the University of Virginia. In 1915, she organized relief for victims of the Avezzano earthquake in Italy and worked to provide relief for World War I casualties in Italy. She died in Southborough, Massachusetts on June 6, 1921, with an estate estimated at $2,000,000.

Reader's Guide

Florence Lathrop Page's significance lies in her philanthropy and her connections to prominent American families. As a benefactor of the Art Institute of Chicago, she created the Henry Field memorial trust in 1893, loaning 44 oil paintings—including works by Corot, Millet, and Delacroix—which was considered the most important accession the museum had received in its fourteen years. She later made an outright gift of the collection on May 26, 1916. She also commissioned the two lion sculptures that still adorn the Art Institute's main entrance. Her philanthropic work extended to public health nursing programs in Chicago, Hanover County, Virginia, New York City, and Washington, D.C., and she donated to the endowments of Associated Charities of the District of Columbia. She regularly gave to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and contributed to Episcopal churches, including St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. In 1915, she organized a large relief program for victims of the Avezzano earthquake in Italy and provided relief for civilian and military casualties of World War I in Italy. Her marriages connected her to the Field family (through Henry Field, brother of Marshall Field) and to the Nelson and Page families of Virginia (through Thomas Nelson Page). Her estate was valued at $2,000,000 at her death.

Did You Know?

• Florence Lathrop Page was born on October 29, 1858, and died on June 6, 1921—exactly 62 years later to the day.
• She commissioned the two lion sculptures by Edward Kemeys that still adorn the main entrance of the Art Institute of Chicago Building.
• Her 1893 Henry Field memorial trust loaned 44 oil paintings to the Art Institute of Chicago, considered the most important accession in the museum's first fourteen years.
• She organized a large relief program for victims of the 1915 Avezzano earthquake in Italy.
• Her estate was estimated to be worth $2,000,000 at her death.