The Cuneo Mansion and Gardens are a historic home, art collection and gardens in Vernon Hills, Illinois, built in 1914 and designed by architect Benjamin Marshall of Marshall & Fox. The mansion's first owner was Samuel Insull, an original founder of the General Electric Company. John Cuneo, Sr. purchased the mansion in 1937 after the collapse of the Insull utility empire. Cuneo is best known as the founder of the Cuneo Press and Hawthorn Mellody Dairy. Cuneo had the interior of the Mansion painted with murals from Chicago Ecclesiological Muralist John Mallin. In 2009, the house was donated to Loyola University Chicago.
The mansion, which remained the family home until the death of Cuneo's widow in 1990, became an art gallery and historic house museum. It opened its doors to the public for the first time in 1991. The mansion's paintings, tapestries, and other furnishings are the result of the Cuneo family's lifelong collecting. In addition to architecture and art, Cuneo is also known for its grounds, designed by the renowned landscape architect Jens Jensen.
Starting in 1994, the Cuneo family allowed the Village of Vernon Hills to decorate the gardens with holiday lights. [1] People were invited to drive through the "Winter Wonderland" light show. The annual show ended in 2014 when Loyola University decided to develop the land. Many of the decorations can still be seen around the Village during the holiday season. [2]
Interpretive tours of the mansion and its collections are conducted by museum guides and staff. The Mediterranean style mansion features an arcaded central hall, a lavish formal dining room and a private chapel. The collections include antique furnishings, Renaissance paintings, tapestries, silver and porcelain.
The Cuneo Museum has been the backdrop of several Hollywood films set in Chicago. Many of the outdoor wedding scenes and reception shots for the 1997 romantic comedy My Best Friend's Wedding , starring Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, were filmed at Cuneo Museum. The museum was also the setting for Witless Protection , starring Larry the Cable Guy, which appeared in 2008.
Libertyville is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States, and a northern suburb of Chicago. It is located 5 miles (8 km) west of Lake Michigan along the Des Plaines River. The 2020 census population was 20,579. It is part of Libertyville Township, which includes the village, neighboring Green Oaks, and portions of Vernon Hills, Mundelein, unincorporated Waukegan and Lake Forest, and part of Knollwood CDP. Libertyville neighbors these communities as well as Gurnee to the north and Grayslake to the northwest. Libertyville is about 40 miles north of the Chicago Loop and is part of the United States Census Bureau's Chicago combined statistical area (CSA).
The Cranbrook Educational Community is an education, research, and public museum complex in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. This National Historic Landmark was founded in the early 20th century by newspaper mogul George Gough Booth. It consists of Cranbrook Schools, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Cranbrook Art Museum, Cranbrook Institute of Science, and Cranbrook House and Gardens. The founders also built Christ Church Cranbrook as a focal point in order to serve the educational complex. However, the church is a separate entity under the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan. The sprawling 319-acre (1,290,000 m2) campus began as a 174-acre (700,000 m2) farm, purchased in 1904. The organization takes its name from Cranbrook, England, the birthplace of the founder's father.
Samuel Insull was a British American business magnate. He was an innovator and investor based in Chicago who helped create an integrated electrical infrastructure in the United States. Insull created holding companies that purchased utilities and railroads. Insull was responsible for the building of the Chicago Civic Opera House in 1929. Due to the Great Depression, his vast Midwest holding company empire collapsed, and he was accused of profiting personally by selling worthless stock to unsuspecting investors who trusted him because of his position and reputation. Following a seven-week trial, he and 16 co-defendants were acquitted of all charges after two hours of jury deliberation.
Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon section of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially by major American art and sculpture collectors, including William Thompson Walters and his son Henry Walters. William Walters began collecting when he moved to Paris as a nominal Confederate loyalist at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, and Henry Walters refined the collection and made arrangements for the construction what ultimately was Walters Art Museum.
The Burrell Collection is a museum in Glasgow, Scotland, managed by Glasgow Museums. It houses the art collection of Sir William Burrell and Constance, Lady Burrell. The museum opened in 1983 and reopened on 29 March 2022 following a major refurbishment. It was announced as the winner of the Art Fund Museum of the Year in July 2023. It is the only non-national museum to be the outright winner twice.
Whitemarsh Hall was a large estate located on 300 acres (1.2 km2) of land in Wyndmoor, Pennsylvania, United States, and owned by banking executive Edward T. Stotesbury and his wife, Eva. Designed by the Gilded Age architect Horace Trumbauer, it was built in 1921 and demolished in 1980. Before its destruction, the mansion was the third-largest private residence in the United States.
Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. (1861–1875) was a furnishings and decorative arts manufacturer and retailer founded by the artist and designer William Morris with friends from the Pre-Raphaelites. With its successor Morris & Co. (1875–1940) the firm's medieval-inspired aesthetic and respect for hand-craftsmanship and traditional textile arts had a profound influence on the decoration of churches and houses into the early 20th century.
The Paine Art Center and Gardens is a preserved historic estate with a mansion and gardens located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It includes public art galleries and botanic gardens on 3 acres (1.2 ha), and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Cheekwood is a 55-acre (22 ha) historic estate on the western edge of Nashville, Tennessee that houses the Cheekwood Estate & Gardens. Formerly the residence of Nashville's Cheek family, the 30,000-square-foot (2,800 m2) Georgian-style mansion was opened as a botanical garden and art museum in 1960.
The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art is an art museum located on the campus of the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. The permanent collection has over 15,000 objects. Admission is free and open to the public.
The Musée Nissim de Camondo is a historic house museum of French decorative arts located in the Hôtel Moïse de Camondo at 63, rue de Monceau, on the edge of Parc Monceau in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France. The nearest Paris Métro stops are Villiers and Monceau on Line 2.
The Musée Jacquemart-André is a private museum located at 158 Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The museum was created from the private home of Édouard André (1833–1894) and Nélie Jacquemart (1841–1912) to display the art they collected during their lives.
Telfair Museums, in the historic district of Savannah, Georgia, was the first public art museum in the Southern United States. Founded through the bequest of Mary Telfair (1791–1875), a prominent local citizen, and operated by the Georgia Historical Society until 1920, the museum opened in 1886 in the Telfair family's renovated Regency style mansion, known as the Telfair Academy.
The National Museum of Decorative Arts is an art museum in Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic universities in the United States. Its namesake is Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Loyola's professional schools include programs in medicine, nursing, and health sciences anchored by the Loyola University Medical Center. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity".
Rinaldo Cuneo, was an American artist known for his landscape paintings and murals. He was dubbed "the Painter of San Francisco".
The Richard H. Driehaus Museum is a museum located at 40 East Erie Street on the Near North Side in Chicago, Illinois, near the Magnificent Mile. The museum is housed within the historic Samuel M. Nickerson House, the 1883 residence of a wealthy Chicago banker. Although the mansion has been restored, the Driehaus Museum does not re-create the Nickerson period but rather broadly interprets and displays the prevailing design, architecture, and decorating tastes of Gilded Age America and the art nouveau era in permanent and special exhibitions.
The Garrett Jacobs Mansion is a historic home located in the Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Built in 1853 by Samuel George, the home gets its name from its last and most famous owner, Mary Frick Garrett Jacobs, who, with her husband Robert Garrett, transformed the home into a prime example of the Gilded Age mansions of the city.
The Art Collection of Marshall Owen Roberts was a collection of sculptures, antiques and paintings owned by New York industrialist Marshall Owen Roberts. The collection, which featured many prominent American artists and works, including Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware, remained intact following his 1880 death until it was auctioned off in 1897.
The Marshall/Goldblatt mansion refers to a demolished mansion that was formerly located on the shore of the Wilmette Harbor in Wilmette, Illinois at 612 Sheridan Road. The exterior of the forty-room pink stucco structure was built in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Built between 1922 and 1924, the mansion was among the most extravagant mansions constructed in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago and was considered an unofficial landmark. The residence was designed by noted architect and hotel magnate Benjamin Marshall and constructed as his personal residence and studio. Amid the Great Depression, the mansion was sold in 1936 to Nathan Goldblatt. The mansion became abandoned after Nathan Goldblatt's widow moved out in 1947. The Goldblatt family offered to sell it to the village of Wilmette's government to serve as a community center. This offer was rejected, and the mansion was demolished between 1949 and 1950. The land was then purchased in 1951 by the Baháʼí Faith organization, whose North American continental temple is located across Sheridan Road. Today, all that remains of the palatial mansion are a pair of gates along Sheridan Road.