Charles Deering
Encyclopedia
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...
. He was an executive of the agricultural machinery company founded by his father that became International Harvester
International Harvester
International Harvester Company was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer. In 1902, J.P...
. Charles's successful stewardship of the family firm left him with the means and leisure to indulge his interests in the arts and natural sciences. His activities and benefactions in the US were centered around Chicago and Miami; he also aspired to found an art museum in Spain.
Early Life
Deering was born July 31, 1852, in South Paris, MaineSouth Paris, Maine
South Paris is a census-designated place located within the town of Paris in Oxford County, Maine, in the United States. The population was 2,237 at the 2000 census...
, the son of Abby Reed Barbour and William Deering
William Deering
William Deering was an American businessman and philanthropist.He inherited a woolen mill in Maine, but made his fortune in later life with the Deering Harvester Company.-Life:Deering was born April 25, 1826 in South Paris, Maine...
. His father was a successful businessman then engaged real estate speculation and in the manufacture and sale of woolens. In 1856, Charles's mother died, and, the following year, his father married Clara Barbour Cummings Hamilton, a cousin of his late wife. The two children of this marriage were James Deering
James Deering
James Deering was an industrialist executive in the family Deering Harvester Company and subsequent International Harvester, a socialite, and an antiquities collector. He is known for his landmark Vizcaya estate, where he was an early 20th century resident on Biscayne Bay in the present day...
(1859–1925) and Abby Marion Deering (later Mrs Richard Flint Howe). Charles remained close to his half-brother and sister throughout his life.
Charles attended Kents Hill School
Kents Hill School
Kents Hill School is an independent college-preparatory school located in Kents Hill, Maine, outside of the state capital of Augusta. Kents Hill School instructs students in grades nine through postgraduate. Students attend Kents Hill from across over 50 communities in Maine,...
, graduating in June of 1869. At first, he set his sights on a career in the Navy. Obtaining a midshipman's warrant, he entered the United States Naval Academy
United States Naval Academy
The United States Naval Academy is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located in Annapolis, Maryland, United States...
at Annapolis, where he graduated second in the class of 1873. He served as a naval officer until 1881, when he resigned in order to join his father's company. Naval service shaped Deering by exposing him to the cultures of Europe and Asia. He supplemented these experiences with extensive personal travel, developing cosmopolitan tastes, a cosmopolitan outlook, and a particular affinity with the arts of Spain. While still in the Navy, Charles met and married Ana Rogers Case, the daughter of Rear Admiral Augustus Ludlow Case; the couple were wed in 1875 in Newport, Rhode Island. Ana Deering died October 31, 1876, shortly after giving birth to a son, Charles Case Deering (1876-1924).
Deering was a gifted amateur artist, and while still in the Navy he used his free time to become acquainted with leading artists and to visit the world's great art galleries. He began a lifelong habit of collecting art, both by acknowledged masters and contemporaries. In 1876, he met the painter John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent
John Singer Sargent was an American artist, considered the "leading portrait painter of his generation" for his evocations of Edwardian era luxury. During his career, he created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings...
, who became a close friend. Other artist-friends included sculptor Augustus St. Gaudens, the Swedish artist Anders Zorn
Anders Zorn
Anders Leonard Zorn was one of Sweden’s foremost artists who obtained international success as a painter, sculptor and printmaker in etching.-Biography:...
, and Catalan artist Ramon Casas i Carbo
Ramon Casas i Carbó
Ramon Casas i Carbó was a Catalan Spanish artist. Living through a turbulent time in the history of his native Barcelona, he was known as a portraitist, sketching and painting the intellectual, economic, and political elite of Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, and beyond; he was also known for his...
. In 1893, Deering took time off from his other duties to study painting in Paris under Zorn for an entire season. Throughout his life, Deering enthusiastically supported and championed the work of many living artists while also avidly purchasing hundreds of older, more obscure works along with many acknowledged masterpieces.
Business Career
By 1881, William Deering's business activities had shifted to Illinois, where some earlier investments had led to his founding the Deering Harvester CompanyDeering Harvester Company
Deering Harvester Company was founded in 1894 by William Deering. In 1902, Deering Harvester Company and McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, along with three smaller agricultural equipment firms merged to create the International Harvester Company which is still in operation today as the Case IH...
. As it grew, he enlisted both his sons in running the company. Charles moved to Chicago, taking up permanent residence in Evanston and becoming the company's secretary. His father retired in 1901. In 1902, J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
financed a deal that combined Deering Harvester and the company founded by Cyrus McCormick
Cyrus McCormick
Cyrus Hall McCormick, Sr. was an American inventor and founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of International Harvester Company in 1902.He and many members of the McCormick family became prominent Chicagoans....
, along with several others, to form the International Harvester
International Harvester
International Harvester Company was a United States agricultural machinery, construction equipment, vehicle, commercial truck, and household and commercial products manufacturer. In 1902, J.P...
Company. Charles Deering became chairman of the board of the newly created company. He served in this capacity until 1910, when he retired.
Art Patronage and Collecting
Deering devoted the rest of his life to art collecting and to the creation of several estates in the United States and Europe. Deering dreamed of creating an art center in Spain, and in 1910 he had the Palau Maricel built with the help of the artist Miquel Utrillo i Morlius in SitgesSitges
*Church of Sant Bartolomeu i Santa Tecla . It houses two Gothic sepulchres , belonging to the an older church located on the same site...
, a town just south of Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. The building was connected by a bridge across the lane to a second building he purchased, which now houses the Museu Maricel. A portrait of him by Catalan artist Ramon Casas i Carbó
Ramon Casas i Carbó
Ramon Casas i Carbó was a Catalan Spanish artist. Living through a turbulent time in the history of his native Barcelona, he was known as a portraitist, sketching and painting the intellectual, economic, and political elite of Barcelona, Paris, Madrid, and beyond; he was also known for his...
can be seen in the museum, which is open to visitors. The Palau Maricel is also open to visitors, but only in the summer. Deering's hope was that the complex would become a magnet for artists and artistic life, where people of many nations would come to make art and study. In addition, Deering's own large and many-sided collection of Spanish art and decorative objects would be on display. In the end, however, Deering abandoned much of this plan. Instead, much of his collection was given to the Art Institute of Chicago, while other works were transferred to his estate at Cutler, Florida.
Florida Estates
Beginning around 1890, the William Deerings began wintering in Florida, first around St. Augustine, and later in the vicinity of Miami. Visiting them, both Charles and his half-brother became deeply interested in South Florida. Around 1908, Charles purchased some 212 acres of land in Buena Vista. In 1910, he hired Clinton Mackenzie to design a Spanish-style villa for the property. He hired the great Chicago landscape architect Ossian Cole SimondsOssian Cole Simonds
Ossian Cole Simonds , often known as O. C. Simonds, was an American landscape designer. He preferred the term 'landscape gardener' to that of 'landscape architect'.-Career:...
to lay out the grounds. Here he supported the New York Botanical Garden
New York Botanical Garden
- See also :* Education in New York City* List of botanical gardens in the United States* List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City- External links :* official website** blog*...
by providing them 25 acres to grow cacti. Around this time, Deering made the acquaintance of botanist David Fairchild
David Fairchild
David Grandison Fairchild was an American botanist and plant explorer. Fairchild was responsible for the introduction of more than 200,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the United States, including soybeans, pistachios, mangos, nectarines, dates, bamboos, and flowering...
and allowed the US Department of Agriculture to establish an experimental station on part of his property. Deering became an avid naturalist and preservationist. The book Ornamental Gardening in Florida by Charles Simpson
Charles Torrey Simpson
Charles Torrey Simpson was an American botanist, malacologist, and conservationist. He retired to Florida where he became known for conservation.- Scientific work :...
is dedicated to him.
Deering correctly foresaw that development would soon engulf the Buena Vista property, and by 1913 he had begun buying land further down on the coast, along Old Cutler Road. By 1915, he had acquired several hundred acres near Cutler and moved his winter quarters there permanently. His Buena Vista estate was broken up by developers during the land boom of 1925. Deering built a fine stone house on his second property. Now named the Charles Deering Estate
Charles Deering Estate
Charles Deering Estate was the Florida home of Charles Deering until 1927 when he died at the estate.-Description:...
, it is open to the public as a museum and nature preserve. Meanwhile, his brother James built an estate, Villa Vizcaya
Villa Vizcaya
Vizcaya, now named the Vizcaya Museum and Gardens, is the former villa and estate of businessman James Deering, of the Deering McCormick-International Harvester fortune, on Biscayne Bay in the present day Coconut Grove neighborhood of Miami, Florida...
, on Biscayne Bay in Coconut Grove.
Family
In 1883, Deering had married Marion Dennison Whipple, the daughter of Major General William Dennison Whipple. The Deerings had three children: Roger, Marion, and Barbara (later Mrs. Richard Ely Danielson).On July 6, 1914, Deering's daughter Marion (1887–1965) married Chauncey McCormick
Chauncey McCormick
Chauncey Brooks McCormick was an American businessman and art collector in the McCormick family.-Life:His mother was Eleanor Brooks, daughter of Walter Brooks of Baltimore....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
over his objections. After a civil ceremony, a religious rite was held at James Deering's Paris residence. Mrs. McCormick became a patron of art in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
and "one of the nation's richest women". Her son Brooks McCormick
Brooks McCormick
Brooks McCormick was a member of the American family that ran International Harvester and a noted philanthropist and equestrian. He was the chief executive officer of International Harvester in the 1970s, and was the final member of the McCormick family to lead the company that they had founded.-...
(1917–2006) was the last family member to head International Harvester.
Death and Memorial Library
Charles Deering died February 5, 1927, in Miami. In 1930, construction began on the Charles Deering LibraryDeering Library
Charles Deering Library is located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Deering Library houses the Government Publications Department and the Northwestern University Archives on the first floor, the Music Library on the second floor, and the Map Collection,...
at Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
in Evanston, Illinois
Evanston, Illinois
Evanston is a suburban municipality in Cook County, Illinois 12 miles north of downtown Chicago, bordering Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, and Wilmette to the north, with an estimated population of 74,360 as of 2003. It is one of the North Shore communities that adjoin Lake Michigan...
. Funding was provided primarily through donations made by the Deering, McCormick, and Danielson families. Dedicated in 1933, it served as Northwestern's primary library until 1970, when an adjacent library was constructed. The Deering Library now houses certain special collections of the Northwestern University Library
Northwestern University Library
The Northwestern University Library is the principal library for the Evanston campus of Northwestern University. The library holds 4.6 million volumes, making it the 11th largest library at a private university. The building was designed in brutalist style by Walter Netsch of Skidmore, Owings and...
, along with art, music, government information, maps, and the University Archives. Deering's son Roger (1884–1936) also was an art patron and benefactor to Northwestern.