Charles L. Hutchinson

Charles Lawrence Hutchinson
Photographic image of a painting of Hutchinson by the artist Gari Melchers (1860-1932)
Born	(1854-03-07)March 7, 1854 Lynn, Massachusetts
Died	October 7, 1924(1924-10-07) (aged 70) Chicago, Illinois
Occupation	Banker President of the Chicago Board of Trade Philanthropist
Spouse(s)	Frances (née Kinsley) Hutchinson (1857–1936)
Parent(s)	Sarah (née Ingalls) and Benjamin P. Hutchinson

Charles Lawrence Hutchinson (March 7, 1854 – October 7, 1924) was a prominent Chicago business leader and philanthropist who is best remembered today as the founding and long-time president of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Hutchinson was born in Lynn, Massachusetts in 1854 to Benjamin P. Hutchinson (1828-1899) and Sarah (née Ingalls) Hutchinson (1833-1909), and relocated with his family to Chicago in 1856 after a brief stay in Milwaukee. In Chicago Benjamin Hutchinson founded Chicago Packing & Provision Co., which for many years was the leading meat processor in the United States. In 1863 he became one of the first directors of the First National Bank of Chicago and in 1881 founded the Corn Exchange Bank (with subsequent mergers and acquisitions now Bank of America) and as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade was known as one of the city’s wealthiest and most colorful speculators. Charles graduated from the Chicago public schools in 1872 and entered the business world as a clerk in his father's office, becoming a junior partner with his father in 1875 in the firm B.P. Hutchinson and Son., commission merchants. Although he never attended college, he was a founding trustee and the first treasurer of the University of Chicago, positions he held until his death. He married Frances Angeline Kinsley, daughter of Herbert Milton Kinsley, on May 26, 1881. Herbert Kinsley had, in the last decades of the 19th Century, become one of Chicago’s premier caterers and restaurateurs after having made his reputation during his peripatetic career in part by hosting a ball for the Prince of Wales at the Anglo-American Hotel in Hamilton, Ontario Canada.

Because of his contributions to the world of philanthropy, art and education Hutchinson was twice awarded honorary degrees by what is today Tufts University, the first one a being a Master of Arts in 1901, and the second one an LL.D in 1920. Hutchinson was also the recipient of an honorary Master of Arts degree by Harvard University in 1915. For his service as consul general for Greece in Chicago during the World’s Columbian Exposition, Hutchinson was awarded the Badge of the Order of the Redeemer by King George I of Greece in 1908. He was granted a knighthood by King Albert I of Belgium in 1919 for his work with the Belgian Relief Committee during World War I, and was a supporter of the founding of the League of Nations at the war's end.