Dorothy Draude Edinburg from Massachusetts was the widow of the late Joseph Edinburg, executive at Boston's Chandler & Farquhar hardware suppliers. She had been a collector of prints and drawings through the 15th to 20th centuries, and of Chinese ceramics from the Tang and Song dynasties. She had donated over 1,500 works to the Art Institute.
Douglas Druick, the museum's president and director, said he would use the funds for further art acquisitions for the Art Institute. He further explained that the Edinburg donation was to specifically go towards additions in holdings of prints and drawings from the Renaissance to 1960 as well as Asian art, an area previous Edinburg bequests had been "transformative" in.
Edinburg was constantly purchasing and donating to the Art Institute during her lifetime. Druick refers to their relationship as a 'partnership'. He said he met her in 1991, and from then on she would continue to factor in the museum's needs in her purchasing of art pieces. He says that her cash donation will allow the museum to boost their strengths, that if she had left her art collection alone to the Art Institute that would have been a considerable addition to it in itself.
Dorothy Draude Edinburg's generous endowment has come soon after that of Chicago collectors Stefan Edlis' and Gael Neeson's, a married couple. The 40 plus collection of modern and contemporary works they donated is esteemed at around $400 million and was the largest art bequest in the history of the Art Institute of Chicago.
