The Robert R. McCormick Museum (Cantigny Park)

The Robert R. McCormick Museum is a historic house museum that depicts the country home of a family that made the Chicago Tribune the “World’s Greatest Newspaper.” Joseph Medill (1823-1899), who became the owner of the Chicago Tribune newspaper in 1874 built this house in 1896 for his daughter and son-in-law, respectively, Katherine Medill McCormick (1853-1932) and Robert Sanderson McCormick (1849-1919). Medill’s grandson, Robert Rutherford McCormick (1880-1955) took possession of the house in 1920. Robert McCormick lived in the house until his death in 1955.
As editors and publishers of the Chicago Tribune, Joseph Medill and Robert Rutherford McCormick used the newspaper as a forum for advocating their own political points of views. On a national scale, Joseph Medill was instrumental in helping to establish the Republican National Party and in securing Abraham Lincoln’s election to the Presidency of the United States. On a local scale, Medill was instrumental in helping Chicago recover from the devastating fire of 1871.

Robert Rutherford McCormick became President of the Chicago Tribune in 1911. He served as the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Chicago Tribune from 1925 to 1955. McCormick’s pro-Republican editorials strongly supported the First Amendment rights to Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press. Before he took over the newspaper, however, Robert McCormick served as an Alderman on Chicago’s City Council and as President of the Sanitary Commission. Before he reached the age of 25, McCormick was also a practicing attorney and a published author. When McCormick was 35, he married Amy Irwin Adams (1872-1939). She died in 1939, and McCormick re-married in 1944.

Colonel Robert R. McCormick continued to live in the mansion until his death in 1955. McCormick’s second wife, Maryland Mathison Hooper McCormick (1897-1985), could have lived in the mansion for as long as she liked, but she chose to leave for Washington, D.C. In 1959, the mansion became a museum. The Cantigny Foundation, which is a branch of the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation, maintains the mansion as a historic house museum. The mansion has 35 rooms, 12 fireplaces, 13 bathrooms and 4 staircases.

The Robert R. McCormick Museum reflects the public and private sides of Medill and McCormick, their families and guests who enjoyed this country home in Wheaton, Illinois. Priceless family heirlooms, Chinese and European works of art, and over 400 year-old antiques grace the 27 rooms that are on display for the public.

From 2002-2005, mansion staff members are restoring the interior of the mansion to reflect the way it looked from 1937 to 1955. Part of this restoration plan includes creating reproductions of original window and upholstery coverings, re-painting many of the wall colors and re-arranging some of the furnishings. Most of the original curtains and floor coverings are gone, but some of the original wallpaper and furnishings exist in the house.