In 1913, the International Exhibition of Modern Art challenged Chicago's conservative art environment and the institution of art as whole. Though World War I delayed the onset of modernism, the Ryerson Library built its collection with texts by the Armory Show's organizers, participants, and enthusiasts, including those prophetic writers who saw the show's significance early on.

Throughout the 20th century, the Art Institute (and other Chicago institutions such as the Arts Club of Chicago) continued to welcome modernist work, and paid attention and homage to artists from Redon to Picasso to Matisse. Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase, perhaps the most polarizing painting of 1913, would return to the Art Institute with accolades in 1949.

1. Cubism. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger. First edition; 1913.
2. The Story of the Armory Show. Walt Kuhn. 1938.
3. Paintings by Matisse and Picasso. A Century of Progress. 1933.
4. The Arts Club of Chicago: Exhibition of Paintings by Marcel Duchamp. 1937.
5. Marcel Duchamp with Nude Descending a Staircase at the exhibition of art from the Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection, 1949.
6. Pictures for Peace: A Retrospective Exhibition Organized from the Armory Show of 1913. March 18 through April 16, 1944.
7. Exhibition photograph from Odilon Redon: Prince of Dreams at the Art Institute of Chicago. 1994.
8. The Decade of the Armory Show: New Directions in American Art. 1963.