This portrait of Joseph Medill Patterson, 1879-1946, shows the "Chicago Tribune" fortune scion in the early period of his launching the "New York Daily News" for the Tribune Company, a tabloid paper soon to become the highest circulation newspaper in the U.S. and its first tabloid. Patterson's home/estate/gentleman's farm (Westwood) was west of Lake Forest, straddling the Des Plaines River, north of what today is route 60, Townline Road. He was the grandson of the Rev. Dr. Robert W. Patterson, founder of Lake Forest and of the predecessor of Lake Forest College and also of the City of Lake Forest, and of Joseph Medill, the late 19th C. publisher of the regional daily newspaper "Chicago Tribune." In the period 1919-1924 Patterson ran his "News" from his Lake Forest area estate, with its 1905 house by Howard Van Doren Shaw.

The photographer for this striking protrait was George Moffett/Moffett [Studio], Chicago, IL, a notable Society portrait photographer of the day.  See http://broadway.cas.sc.edu/index.php?action=showPhotographer&id=75

The image is form the Jospeh Medill Patterson collections of Lake Forest College's library Special Collections, donations of James Patterson, Josephine Albright, and alice (Mrs. Michael) Arlen.  

Moffett, George; Moffett Studio, Chicago.