The Art Institute was constructed in conjunction with the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893; after the exhibition closed, the school and museum occupied the building in late 1893. By 1913, the building and the city had undergone a number of changes. Fullerton Hall was added in 1898 and the Ryerson Library opened in 1901. The Reading Room, replete with mosaics and skylight, has retained its historic character. The "monumental staircase" was finished in 1910, but plans for a costly dome were abandoned. In 1913, the Michigan Avenue entrance hall had no circular desk (and no gift shop), and horses and cars jostled for priority on South Michigan Avenue in front of the museum.

Late in 1913, the Fountain of the Great Lakes by sculptor Lorado Taft was erected on the south side of the building. Water moves through the fountain in the same sequence as it moves through the Great Lakes; from an allegorical Lake Superior to Lakes Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario. The fountain was moved to its current location, facing west in the South McCormick Courtyard, in 1963. During the time of the Armory Show, a photograph of the sculpture's scaffolding was published in the Chicago Daily News for its visual similarity to Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase.

1. Art Institute of Chicago, c. 1913.
2. Entrance hall, c. 1919.
3. Postcard of the Ryerson Library, c.1918.
4. "Proposed monumental staircase and dome." The Collections Illustrated: With a Historical Sketch and Description of the Museum. 1910.
5. Art Institute of Chicago, c. 1918.
6. Stereoscopic photograph of the Art Institute, c.1910.
7. Fountain of the Great Lakes. Lorado Taft. c. 1913.
8. Schoolchildren with Fountain of the Great Lakes, c.1915.
9. Sailors with Fountain of the Great Lakes, c. 1914.
10. "The cubists outcubed; a statue frame." Chicago Daily News, March 20, 1913.