Everett D. Graff, Lake Forest College Class of 1906.......lfspfmn00078.tif
Title
Everett D. Graff, Lake Forest College Class of 1906.......lfspfmn00078.tif
Description
Everett D. Graff: The Early-Century Ideal of a Lake Forest Liberal Arts Graduate
Everett D. Graff '06 (1885-1964) exemplified the early-century ideal of a Lake Forest College liberal arts graduate: rising to both corporate and cultural leadership in Chicago and making a lasting scholarly contribution as the preeminent collector and preserver of Trans-Mississippi Americana and providing for a bibliography of his collection.
Graff's birthplace, Clarinda, Iowa, was typical of the Midwestern origins of many Lake Forest students of his day. Active in College life as a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity and the 1905-6 tennis team, and business manager of the 1906 Forester staff, Graff upon graduation (major: English) joined Ryerson Steel as an office boy. From this start he rose in classic Horatio Alger fashion to the presidency of Ryerson when it became a subsidiary of Inland Steel in 1937, eventually becoming chief executive of the parent firm.
Early developing a passion for collecting books, journals, art, and ephemera of the American West, by the post-World War II period Graff had, under the guidance of Chicago master bookseller Wright Howes, assembled a remarkable collection that led scholars into new findings about the West. For example, researcher Mae Reed Porter (a contributor to historian Bernard De Voto's 1947 classical study Across the Wide Missouri), pursuing the neglected painter for the fur-trade era, Alfred Jacob Miller, found many of Miller's canvases, salvaged from a Scottish castle, preserved in Graff's Winnetka home (designed by architect Stanley Anderson '16). Graff's collection brought him into associations with key Chicago cultural institutions, in all of which his organizational ability destined him ultimately for presidencies. These included the book collectors' group the Caxton Club, the Art Institute, and the Newberry Library. It was to this last that most of his book collection was donated, to the care of Lake Forest alumna Gertrude Loop (Woodward) '17, curator of rare books. Not only did Graff endow his collection there for future purchases, but he set aside funds for it to be professionally cataloged. That thick volume has, for a generation, been the standard reference in the field for scholars and collectors.
Graff also was loyal to his alma mater (which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1955), donating both his Napoleonic and Canadiana collections to the College library along with an endowment fund for annual purchases. This bequest has allowed the College to acquire a wide range of items relating to his collecting interests. From office boy to board room, from Reid Library study table to a niche at the Newberry, Graff indeed epitomized the goals of the College leaders who reengineered the institution as a quality liberal arts college a century ago.
Everett D. Graff '06 (1885-1964) exemplified the early-century ideal of a Lake Forest College liberal arts graduate: rising to both corporate and cultural leadership in Chicago and making a lasting scholarly contribution as the preeminent collector and preserver of Trans-Mississippi Americana and providing for a bibliography of his collection.
Graff's birthplace, Clarinda, Iowa, was typical of the Midwestern origins of many Lake Forest students of his day. Active in College life as a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity and the 1905-6 tennis team, and business manager of the 1906 Forester staff, Graff upon graduation (major: English) joined Ryerson Steel as an office boy. From this start he rose in classic Horatio Alger fashion to the presidency of Ryerson when it became a subsidiary of Inland Steel in 1937, eventually becoming chief executive of the parent firm.
Early developing a passion for collecting books, journals, art, and ephemera of the American West, by the post-World War II period Graff had, under the guidance of Chicago master bookseller Wright Howes, assembled a remarkable collection that led scholars into new findings about the West. For example, researcher Mae Reed Porter (a contributor to historian Bernard De Voto's 1947 classical study Across the Wide Missouri), pursuing the neglected painter for the fur-trade era, Alfred Jacob Miller, found many of Miller's canvases, salvaged from a Scottish castle, preserved in Graff's Winnetka home (designed by architect Stanley Anderson '16). Graff's collection brought him into associations with key Chicago cultural institutions, in all of which his organizational ability destined him ultimately for presidencies. These included the book collectors' group the Caxton Club, the Art Institute, and the Newberry Library. It was to this last that most of his book collection was donated, to the care of Lake Forest alumna Gertrude Loop (Woodward) '17, curator of rare books. Not only did Graff endow his collection there for future purchases, but he set aside funds for it to be professionally cataloged. That thick volume has, for a generation, been the standard reference in the field for scholars and collectors.
Graff also was loyal to his alma mater (which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1955), donating both his Napoleonic and Canadiana collections to the College library along with an endowment fund for annual purchases. This bequest has allowed the College to acquire a wide range of items relating to his collecting interests. From office boy to board room, from Reid Library study table to a niche at the Newberry, Graff indeed epitomized the goals of the College leaders who reengineered the institution as a quality liberal arts college a century ago.
Publisher
From 30 Miles North: A History of Lake Forest College, its Town, and its City of Chicago, Lake Forest, Illinois: Lake Forest College, 2000, ISBN 0963818961
Rights
Relation
30 Miles North Images (Lake Forest College)
Format
Image/tiff
Resolution
228 pixels per inch
Dimensions
4000 × 5046 pixels
