The Armory Show was pegged as divisive, even prior to the show's arrival in Chicago. Public opinion was markedly stronger than in New York and many believed that works of Post-Impressionism were produced by the childish, untrained, and insane. Some conservative viewers found nudity in the show morally offensive and others related the art on display to a circus or a hoax. A few even complained that they became physically ill in reaction to pieces like Dance at the Spring by Francis Picabia.

The public demanded explanation for the show. Art Institute affiliates, including art collector, lawyer, and trustee Arthur Jerome Eddy, SAIC faculty member and president of the Chicago Guild of Artists Charles Francis Browne, and Association of American Painters and Sculptors member Frederick J. Gregg, gave public lectures that provoked such lively debate that they had to be repeated; the first, which featured all three speakers, filled Fullerton Hall to capacity, and some attendees had to be turned away.

Those who voiced their support risked association with the derogatory characteristics that were attributed to the artists themselves, but modern art still had allies in Chicago. Art critic Harriet Monroe found the show nothing short of revolutionary and Robert W. Friedel wrote a letter to the editor of the Chicago Evening Post expressing his approval of modernism's innovative spirit. Arthur J. Eddy would purchase a number of pieces from the show that would later become part of the permanent collections of the Art Institute.

1. Chicago Record Herald, March 25, 1913.
2. Chicago Evening Post, March 18, 1913.
3. "The New Spirit: International Exhibition of Modernist Art; The Association of American Painters and Sculptors." Arts and Decoration 3, no. 5. 1913.
4. Parodic rhyme about cubism written in pencil on front flyleaf. Catalogue of the International Exhibition of Modernist Art. Second edition; March 24 to April 16, 1913.
5. Postcard advertising repeating lectures by Arthur J. Eddy, Charles Francis Browne, and Frederick J. Gregg, 1913.
6. "Sunday Crowds See Cubist Art." Chicago Daily Tribune, March 31, 1913.
7. "Dances at the Spring" by Francis Picabia (1912). Cubists and Post-Impressionism. Arthur Jerome Eddy. 1914.
8. Is It Art? J. Nilsen Laurvik. 1913.
9. Letter from Adeline Adams to William M. R. French, March 13, 1913.
10. "Cubist Art Severs Friendships." Chicago Examiner, March 28, 1913.
11. "Cubist art a protest against narrow conservatism." Harriet Monroe. Chicago Daily Tribune, April 6, 1913.
12. Letter to the editor. Robert W. Friedel. Chicago Evening Post, March 21, 1913.