Thomas Barbour Bryan

{{Short description|American businessman and politician}} {{good article}} {{Use mdy dates|date=May 2021}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Thomas Barbour Bryan | image = 1868LeadingMenBryan (1).jpg | caption = Bryan in the 1860s | birth_date = {{birth date|1828|12|22}} | birth_place = Alexandria, Virginia | death_date = {{death date and age|1906|01|26|1828|12|22}} | death_place = Washington, D.C. | resting_place = Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C. | office = Commissioner of the District of Columbia | term_start = December 3, 1877 | term_end = July 1, 1878 | predecessor = John H. Ketcham<ref name="tindall">{{Cite book |last=Tindall |first=William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gHVCAAAAIAAJ |title=Origin and Government of the District of Columbia |year=1903 |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |page=210 |language=en |access-date=January 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185135/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Origin_and_Government_of_the_District_of/gHVCAAAAIAAJ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="larner" /> | successor = ''seat abolished''<ref name="tindall" /><ref name="larner" /> | party = Republican | children = 3 (including Charles Page Bryan and Jennie Byrd Bryan Payne) | father = Daniel Bryan | spouse = {{marriage|Jennie Byrd Page|1850|1898|reason=died}} | relatives = James Barbour (uncle) Philip P. Barbour (uncle) Thomas Barbour (grandfather) Barbour Lathrop (nephew) Bryan Lathrop (nephew) Florence Lathrop Field Page (niece) John Barton Payne (son-in-law) Jedediah Hyde Lathrop (brother-in-law) Andrew Wylie Jr. (brother-in-law) | alma_mater = Harvard University | signature = Thomas B. Bryan 1871 (1).jpg }}

'''Thomas Barbour Bryan''' (December 22, 1828 – January 26, 1906) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician.

Born in Virginia, a member of the prestigious Barbour family on his mother's side, Bryan largely made a name for himself in Chicago, Illinois. He was involved in many ventures in the city, such as the creation of Graceland Cemetery, and was active in the city's politics, having twice been nominated for mayor (in 1861 and 1863). He was a strong unionist during the American Civil War. He played a key role in the development of the Chicago suburb of Elmhurst, Illinois, where he resided much of his life, and is often referred to as "The Father of Elmhurst". He was also instrumental in Chicago being awarded the World's Columbian Exposition, and was involved in the 1893 exposition's organization and operation. In addition to his involvement in Chicago politics, Bryan spent a brief period as a commissioner of the District of Columbia.

==Early life, education, and family== Bryan was born in Alexandria, Virginia, on December 22, 1828.<ref name="harvard">{{Cite web |last1=Thayer |first1=William Roscoe |last2=Castle |first2=William Richards |last3=Howe |first3=Mark Antony De Wolfe |last4=Pier |first4=Arthur Stanwood |last5=Voto |first5=Bernard Augustine De |last6=Morrison |first6=Theodore |date=1906 |title=The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, Volume 14 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VjJYAAAAYAAJ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185136/https://books.google.com/books?id=VjJYAAAAYAAJ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |publisher=Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association |page=543 |language=en |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref><ref name="biographical1">{{Cite book |title=Biographical Sketches Of The Leading Men Of Chicago, written by the Best Talent of the Northwest |date=1868 |publisher=Wilson & St. Clair, Publishers |location=Chicago}}</ref><ref name="celebritygallery" /> His father was Daniel Bryan, and his mother was Mary Thomas Barbour Bryan ({{née|Barbour}}).<ref name="biographical1" /><ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="poe">{{Cite web |title=Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore – People – Daniel Bryan |url=https://www.eapoe.org/people/bryand.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727200309/https://www.eapoe.org/people/bryand.htm |archive-date=July 27, 2020 |website=www.eapoe.org |publisher=Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Bryan001">{{Cite web |title=Bryan001 |url=https://www.elmhursthistory.org/DocumentCenter/View/1921/Bryan001?bidId= |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185136/https://www.elmhursthistory.org/DocumentCenter/View/1921/Bryan001?bidId= |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=January 1, 2021 |website=www.elmhursthistory.org |publisher=Elmhurst Historical Society}}</ref> Bryan's father was a poet and a lawyer, abolitionist, and statesman who served from 1821 to 1853 as Alexandria's postmaster, and who, from 1818 through 1820 served in the Senate of Virginia.<ref name="biographical1" /><ref name=poe/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Bryan, Daniel (ca. 1789–1866) |url=https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Bryan_Daniel_ca_1789-1866 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727200907/https://www.encyclopediavirginia.org/Bryan_Daniel_ca_1789-1866 |archive-date=July 27, 2020 |website=www.encyclopediavirginia.org |access-date=May 6, 2020}}</ref>

A member of the esteemed Barbour family through his mother, Bryan's maternal uncles were James Barbour and Philip P. Barbour.<ref name="biographical1" /><ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="Bryan001" /> His maternal grandfather was Thomas Barbour.<ref name="biographical1" /><ref name="Bryan001" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Political Graveyard: Barbour family of Virginia |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/10072.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190928055121/http://politicalgraveyard.com/families/10072.html |archive-date=September 28, 2019 |access-date=January 2, 2021 |website=politicalgraveyard.com}}</ref> His nephews through his sister Mariana Thomas Lathrop and her husband (Jedediah Hyde Lathrop) included Bryan Lathrop, Barbour Lathrop, and Florence Lathrop Field Page.<ref name="Bryan001"/><ref name="Indiana"/><ref name="Resources1"/> Bryan would later go form a personal and business relationship with Bryan Lathrop.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 28, 2016 |title=Remembering Bryan Lathrop |url=https://www.glessnerhouse.org/story-of-a-house/2016/5/28/remembering-bryan-lathrop |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506105849/https://www.glessnerhouse.org/story-of-a-house/2016/5/28/remembering-bryan-lathrop |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |website=Glessner House |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref> Through his sister Mary Caroline and her husband Andrew Wylie Jr., one of his nephews was Horace Wylie.<ref name="Bryan001"/>

Sources disagree as to whether Bryan's paternal great-uncle was Daniel Boone, as it is unclear whether his father was Boone's nephew.<ref name=poe/><ref name="mrlib.org">{{Cite web |date=July 6, 2012 |title=Daniel Boone: His Valley Connections |url=https://mrlib.org/daniel-boone-his-valley-connections/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185140/https://mrlib.org/daniel-boone-his-valley-connections/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=January 2, 2021 |website=Massanutten Regional Library}}</ref> If he is Boone's great-nephew, his paternal grandfather would have been William Bryan (one of the founders of Bryan Station) and his maternal grandmother had been Mary Boone Bryan.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Daniel Bryan (1795–1866) |url=http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/AuthorRecord.php?action=GET&recordid=33549 |website=spenserians.cath.vt.edu |access-date=May 10, 2020 |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185139/http://spenserians.cath.vt.edu/AuthorRecord.php?action=GET&recordid=33549 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Mary Boone Bryan |url=http://www.usgenwebsites.org/KYCampbell/maryboonebryan.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200130164912/http://www.usgenwebsites.org/KYCampbell/maryboonebryan.htm |archive-date=January 30, 2020 |website=www.usgenwebsites.org |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref><ref name="mrlib.org" />

Bryan was educated at Virginia's top preparatory schools.<ref name="biographical1" /> For four years, Bryan held a clerkship with the post office that his father oversaw. The clerkship paid $300 annually, which Bryan saved up before leaving to attend Harvard University.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hentz |first=Charles Arnould |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NSyyORKJtzEC |title=A Southern Practice: The Diary and Autobiography of Charles A. Hentz, M.D. |date=2000 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-1881-5 |page=510 |language=en |access-date=May 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185139/https://books.google.com/books?id=NSyyORKJtzEC |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> Bryan graduated from Harvard Law School in 1848.<ref name=harvard/><ref name="CTdead26jan" /> While attending Harvard, he lived in nearby Boston at the house of a German woman who taught him the German language. He would, soon after graduating, publish grammar meant to help Germans learn to read, write, and speak the English language. This grammar received praise from German press and from professors.<ref>{{Cite web |date=April 20, 1863 |title=To the German Voters and Citizens of Chicago. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462807/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185140/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462807/to-the-german-voters-and-citizens-of/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=January 5, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=Chicago Tribune |language=en}}</ref>

==Adult life and career== ===Early career=== After graduating from Harvard Law School, Bryan practiced law in Cincinnati until 1852.<ref name=harvard/> At one point in his legal career, he was attorney for the estate of deceased president William Henry Harrison.<ref name="celebritygallery" />

{{Multiple image|total_width = 400  | align =  | direction =  | background color =  | width =  | caption_align =  | image_style =  | image_gap =  | image1 = George Peter Alexander Healy - Mrs. Thomas B. Bryan - 1973.144 - Smithsonian American Art Museum.jpg |caption1 = ''Mrs. Thomas B. Bryan'', an 1856 George Peter Alexander Healy painting of Bryan's wife Jennie, which is now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mrs. Thomas B. Bryan {{!}} Smithsonian American Art Museum |url=https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/mrs-thomas-b-bryan-10161 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204085306/https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/mrs-thomas-b-bryan-10161 |archive-date=December 4, 2020 |access-date=January 3, 2021 |website=americanart.si.edu |publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum}}</ref> | alt1 = | image2 = Thomas Barbour Bryan with children 45151821.jpg | caption2 = Bryan with son Charles and daughter Jennie, circa 1865 | width2 =  | alt2 = }}

In 1850, in a wedding ceremony held in Newport, Kentucky, Bryan married Jennie "Jane" Byrd Page who became Mrs. Jennie Byrd Bryan.<ref name="Bryan001" /><ref name="ehmFB">{{Cite web |date=November 2, 2018 |title=History Highlight: Thomas Barbour Bryan and Elmhurst {{!}} Facebook |url=https://www.facebook.com/notes/elmhurst-history-museum/history-highlight-thomas-barbour-bryan-and-elmhurst/10155553155737234/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185140/https://www.facebook.com/notes/elmhurst-history-museum/history-highlight-thomas-barbour-bryan-and-elmhurst/10155553155737234/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |website=www.facebook.com |publisher=Elmhurst History Museum |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref><ref name="womanofmanyfriends" /> His wife was related, by marriage, to the prominent Page and Lee families of Virginia.<ref name="womanofmanyfriends" /> She was the daughter of an episcopal clergyman.<ref name="CTdead26jan" />

===Move to Illinois=== In 1852, Bryan and his wife moved to Chicago, where he had acquired broad real estate interests.<ref name=ehm/><ref name="womanofmanyfriends" /><ref name="celebritygallery">{{Cite web |date=May 13, 1900 |title=Gallery of Local Celebrities No. XVI – Thomas B. Bryan |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462736/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185216/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462736/gallery-of-local-celebrities-no-xvi/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=May 28, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=Chicago Tribune |language=en}}</ref> He was also involved in the construction of railroads.<ref name="Selzer1">{{cite book |last1=Selzer |first1=Adam |title=Graceland Cemetery: Chicago Stories, Symbols, and Secrets |date=2022 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/j.ctv2p7j66k |access-date=27 April 2024 |publisher=University of Illinois Press|jstor=10.5406/j.ctv2p7j66k |isbn=978-0-252-08650-2 }}</ref> Over the next half-century, Bryan would be a booster in the growth of the city.<ref name=harvard/> Bryan also established a reputation for himself as a gifted orator.<ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="ehmFB" />

Bryan and his wife Jennie had three children, two of whom (a son and a daughter) would live to adulthood. The son they lost as a child, Daniel Page Bryan, who died on April 12, 1855, at the age of five.<ref name="Florence" /><ref name="Selzer1"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=Hidden Truths: Contributing Factors |url=https://hiddentruths.northwestern.edu/factors/rural/graceland.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930181546/https://hiddentruths.northwestern.edu/factors/rural/graceland.html |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |access-date=January 2, 2021 |website=hiddentruths.northwestern.edu |publisher=Northwestern University}}</ref> Their adult son was Charles Page Bryan, born in 1855, who would have a career as a lawyer, politician, and diplomat.<ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="Bryan001" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Political Graveyard: Society of the Cincinnati, politicians, District of Columbia |url=http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/DC/soc-cincinnati.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180330032319/http://politicalgraveyard.com/geo/DC/soc-cincinnati.html |archive-date=March 30, 2018 |website=politicalgraveyard.com |publisher=Political Graveyard |access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref> Their daughter, born in 1857, was also named Jennie Byrd Bryan. She would become an artist and philanthropist, and would, in 1913, marry John Barton Payne, adopting his surname.<ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="Bryan001" /><ref name="kohler1">{{Cite web |last1=Kohler |first1=Sue A. |last2=Carson |first2=Jeffrey R. |last3=Arts |first3=United States Commission of Fine |date=1978 |title=Sixteenth Street Architecture |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_2dK3n--wAkC |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506205813/https://books.google.com/books?id=_2dK3n--wAkC |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |publisher=Commission of Fine Arts |page=104 |language=en |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref>

Bryan's initial residence in Chicago was at 103 Michigan Avenue, near Madison Street.<ref name="celebritygallery" /> This was, at the time, a fashionable neighborhood.<ref name="CTdead26jan" /> Here, he was neighbors with many prominent Chicagoans, including Matthew Laflin.<ref name="celebritygallery" /> Shortly after living here, he built a house at the northwest corner of Wabash Avenue and Jackson Street.<ref name="CTdead26jan" />

[[File:Postcard of Byrd's Nest in Elmhurst, Illinois.jpg|thumb|Postcard of Bryan's residence at the Byrd's Nest estate in Elmhurst, Illinois]]

Sometime between 1856 and 1859, Bryan settled in Cottage Hill, Illinois (modern-day Elmhurst), building a 1,000-acre estate there named "Byrd's Nest".<ref name="Bryan001" /><ref name="ehm">{{Cite web |last=Wilson |first=Nancy |date=2013 |title=EHM Historical Highlights Thomas Barbour Bryan (1828–1906) |url=https://www.elmhurst.org/DocumentCenter/View/8370/Thomas-Barbour-Bryan-text?bidId= |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200610110632/https://www.elmhurst.org/DocumentCenter/View/8370/Thomas-Barbour-Bryan-text?bidId= |archive-date=June 10, 2020 |website=emhurst.org |publisher=Elmhurst History Museum |access-date=May 8, 2020}}</ref><ref name="byrd" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Elmhurst, IL |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/422.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200205051222/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/422.html |archive-date=February 5, 2020 |website=www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref> While he awaited the completion of this residence, he and his family lived in Cottage Hill's Hill Cottage Tavern, where he befriended the artist George Peter Alexander Healy. Healy would be a lifelong friend,<ref name="historyhighlight"/> and in 1857 bought the Hill Cottage from Barbour to serve as a residence for his own family, making them neighbors.<ref name="historicalart"/>

Once completed, the Byrd's Nest estate included a 21-room manor, a separate garden house, and a man-made lake.<ref name="historyhighlight"/> Living there, he would commute daily to Chicago on the Chicago and North Western Railway.<ref name="byrd" /> In the 1860 United States census, Bryan was recorded to be the wealthiest person in DuPage County, with a net worth said to exceed $325,000.<ref name="byrd">{{Cite web |last=Breslin |first=Mary |date=March 9, 1997 |title=Byr'ds Nest Draws Settlers After Chicago Fire |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-03-09-9703090303-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185141/https://www.chicagotribune.com/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |website=chicagotribune.com |publisher=Chicago Tribune |access-date=May 6, 2020}}</ref> In 1864, he would sell 26 acres of his land to his brother-in-law Jedediah Hyde Lathrop, who built his own estate named "Huntington" on the site.<ref name="Resources1">{{Cite web |date=2016 |title=Architectural Resources in the York-Cottage Hill Survey Area Elmhurst, Illinois Summary and Inventory |url=https://www.elmhurst.org/DocumentCenter/View/12498/York-Cottage-Hill-Survey-Report-FINAL?bidId= |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185141/https://www.elmhurst.org/DocumentCenter/View/12498/York-Cottage-Hill-Survey-Report-FINAL?bidId= |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |publisher=Prepared for the City of Elmhurst by: Ramsey Historic Consultants |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Indiana">{{cite web |title=Andrew Wylie, Jr. Family Collection, 1821–1945 |url=https://archives.iu.edu/catalog/VAC0754 |website=archives.iu.edu |publisher=Indiana University Bloomington Archives |access-date=11 November 2024}}</ref>

thumb|Byrd's Nest chapel (constructed in 1865) Bryan would ultimately play an important role in the development of the town of Cottage Hill/Elmhurst.<ref name=ehm/><ref name="byrd" /> He is often referred to as "The Father of Elmhurst".<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 8, 2012 |title=Pick of the Week |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462727/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185137/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462727/pick-of-the-week/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=January 5, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=Chicago Tribune |language=en}}</ref> In 1860, Bryan converted the bowling alley in his Byrd's Nest residence's basement into a chapel space where he invited local residents to hold services. He did so in response to news that a former church building in the city of Chicago was being converted into bowling alley. The chapel was one of the community's first church spaces, and it proved popular enough that he was motivated five years later to erect a separate building on his estate housing a new chapel. The 1865 Byrd's Nest chapel stood where the intersection of Cottage Hill Avenue and St. Charles Road is today. It was demolished in 1914, but its former congregation is a precursor to the town's Church of Our Savior which continues to exist.<ref name="historyhighlight"/> In 1869, Bryan assembled a number of Cottage Hill residents and proposed the idea of renaming the community to "Elmhurst", a name reflective of the German heritage of many town residents and the many elm trees that Bryan had planted across the community over the course of the preceding ten years. This proposal was successful.<ref name="historyhighlight">{{cite web |title=Elmhurst History Highlight: Thomas Barbour Bryan (1828-1906) |date=October 2021|last1= Wilson |first1= Nancy |last2= Lund |first2= Daniel |url=https://assets.simpleviewinc.com/simpleview/image/upload/v1/clients/elmhurstil/Thomas_B_Bryan_update_202110281019196399_f93514fa-5ea2-45c7-ac8b-0d7707f93629.pdf |website=Elmhurst History Museum |access-date=24 April 2024}}</ref> That same year, Bryan and his wife Jennie sold 30 acres of their land in Elmhurst to the German Evangelical Synod of the Northwest for $10,000.<ref name="historyhighlight"/> In 1871, the Synod established the Elmhurst Pro-seminary on the property, a seminary which would eventually become Elmhurst University.<ref name="historyhighlight"/><ref>{{Cite web |title=A Spartan Beginning At Elmhurst College |website=Chicago Tribune |date=October 19, 1997 |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1997/10/19/a-spartan-beginning-at-elmhurst-college/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151125014120/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1997-10-19/features/9710190303_1_students-attic-young-men |archive-date=November 25, 2015 |access-date=August 8, 2015}}</ref>

In 1860, Bryan established Chicago's Graceland Cemetery in partnership with William Butler Ogden, Sidney Sawyer, Edwin H. Sheldon, and George Peter Alexander Healy.<ref name="Florence" /><ref name=hhholmes1/> He had been motivated to establish a new cemetery after being disappointed by the "neglected and actually repulsive condition" of Chicago's City Cemetery when his son Daniel was buried there. He sought to create a "rural burying ground, more remote from and worthy of the city <nowiki>[of Chicago]</nowiki>." However, he placed these ambitions on hold after Rosehill Cemetery was opened by a group independent of Bryan's efforts. However, after he was offered the presidency of the company that operated Rosehill Cemetery, Bryan became motivated to pursue his shelved plans to establish his own cemetery.<ref name="Selzer1"/> He then got to work, becoming the inaugural president of the Graceland Cemetery Association. Healy served as treasurer.<ref name=hhholmes1/> He purchased land for his cemetery from the heirs of Justin Butterfield, collaborated with a number of landscape architects to design the cemetery, and fought challenges from the owners of adjacent properties who opposed his plans to transform the site into a cemetery.<ref name="Selzer1"/> In April 1860,<ref name="Selzer1"/> the first burial at Graceland Cemetery occurred when Bryan had his late son Daniel reinterred there.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Simon |first=Andreas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hINDAQAAMAAJ |title=Chicago: The Garden City ... |date=1894 |language=en |access-date=January 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185142/https://books.google.com/books?id=hINDAQAAMAAJ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Florence">{{Cite book |last=Funigiello |first=Philip J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=haEp59v_0UIC |title=Florence Lathrop Page: A Biography |year=1994 |publisher=University of Virginia Press |isbn=978-0-8139-1489-3 |pages=17–18 |language=en |access-date=May 12, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185152/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Florence_Lathrop_Page/haEp59v_0UIC?hl=en |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> Graceland Cemetery was formally dedicated that August.<ref name="Selzer1"/>

1860 also saw the opening of Bryan Hall, a music hall which Bryan constructed in Chicago on Clark Street across from the city's courthouse. With a capacity of between 500 and 600 people, it was reported to be the largest hall of its kind in the metropolitan area at the time of its opening.<ref name="byrd" /><ref name="chicagology">{{Cite web |title=Bryan Hall |url=https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire138/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027150749/https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire138/ |archive-date=October 27, 2020 |website=chicagology.com |publisher=Chicagology |access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Image 1 of Bryan Hall, Clark Street, opposite the Court House. Chicago, Illinois. [Chicago, 186-]. |url=https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.01807500/?sp=1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185155/https://www.loc.gov/resource/rbpe.01807500/?sp=1 |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |website=Library of Congress|access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref> It would remain the city's primary venue until the opening of Crosby's Opera House.<ref name="biographical1" />

===Mayoral campaigns and activism during the Civil War=== Bryan was, twice, reluctantly a nominee for mayor of Chicago.<ref name="biographical1" /> In 1861, Bryan was the People's Ticket nominee for mayor of Chicago. He lost the election to Republican Julian Sidney Rumsey by a sizable margin.<ref name="biographical1" /><ref name=goodspeed/><ref name="mayors">{{Cite web |title=Chicago Mayors, 1837–2007 |url=http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1443.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200820213547/http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/1443.html |archive-date=August 20, 2020 |access-date=January 1, 2021 |website=www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org |publisher=Encyclopedia of Chicago}}</ref> Bryan had been drafted for mayor by a number of acquaintances to run on what the being dubbed "The People's Ticket".<ref name="biographical1" /> Unaware at the time that he'd be running in opposition to the Republican Party, Bryan reluctantly accepted.<ref name="biographical1" /> He was reported to, ultimately, have seemed somewhat relieved by his ultimate defeat in the polls.<ref name="biographical1" /> He did not desire to be mayor of the city, nor did he want to cause disarray or fractures in the Republican Party at the time that the Civil War was beginning.<ref name="biographical1" /> Bryan was the National Union (Republican) nominee for the office in 1863, losing by an incredibly narrow margin to incumbent mayor Francis Cornwall Sherman.<ref name="goodspeed">{{Cite book |last=Goodspeed |first=Weston A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=odQpAAAAYAAJ |title=The History of Cook County, Illinois |publisher=Goodspeed Historical Association |year=1909 |pages=390, 393, 398 588 |isbn=9780608368931 |access-date=December 31, 2020}}</ref><ref name="mayors" /><ref name="dicksimpson1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=jQlQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT49 Rogues, Rebels, And Rubber Stamps: The Politics Of The Chicago City Council, 1863 To The Present Portada; Dick Simpson Routledge, Mar 8, 2018]</ref> He originally planned to contest the result over allegations of election fraud by the Democrats, but ultimately did not, not being concerned enough with the results, having been a reluctant candidate to begin with.<ref name="biographical1" /><ref name=goodspeed/> In his first campaign speech of his 1863 effort, Bryan remarked that while he had not sought nomination, he would accept it in consideration of the cause of union amid the American Civil War, declaring agreement with the platform of the ticket he was nominated on, {{blockquote|The Union men I conceive to stand pledged to a hearty support of the Government in its efforts to suppress the accursed rebellion. Their platform, as I have more than once claimed, is simply a loving devotion and an inflexible fidelity to the Union.<ref name="dicksimpson1"/>}}

A strong unionist, during the Civil War, Bryan funded a company of the 105th Infantry Regiment of Illinois Volunteers in the Civil War, named the "Bryan's Blues".<ref name="byrd" /> He was a member of the Union Defense Committee.<ref name=harvard/><ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="CTdead26jan" /> He was also president of the Northwestern Sanitary Fair, an event held in 1865 along the Chicago lakefront which raised more than $300,000 for Union soldiers.<ref name=harvard/><ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="CTdead26jan" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=March 9, 1865 |title=The Northwestern Sanitary Fair. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1865/03/09/archives/the-northwestern-sanitary-fair.html |website=The New York Times |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Great North-Western Sanitary Fair opens in Chicago, Illinois {{!}} House Divided |url=http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/44134 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809095232/http://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/44134 |archive-date=August 9, 2020 |website=hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu |publisher=Dickinson College |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref> Interestingly, his wife had incidentally been in the company of Confederate Army general Robert E. Lee, a relative of hers by marriage, just days before the breakout of the Civil War.<ref name="womanofmanyfriends" />

===Post-war and Great Chicago Fire=== Bryan served in leadership roles for numerous Chicago organizations. From 1865 until 1906, Bryan served as president of the Chicago Soldiers' Home, which he also had helped to found.<ref name="Florence" /><ref name="Herringshaw">{{Cite web |last=Herringshaw |first=Thomas William |date=1909 |title=Herringshaw's National Library of American Biography: Contains Thirty-five Thousand Biographies of the Acknowledged Leaders of Life and Thought of the United States; Illustrated with Three Thousand Vignette Portraits ... |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=urzTAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109175031/https://books.google.com/books?id=urzTAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=January 9, 2020 |publisher=American Publishers' Association |page=472 |language=en |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref> He was president of the Union League Club of Chicago.<ref name=harvard/><ref name=Herringshaw/>

In 1870, Bryan leased Bryan Hall to Richard M. Hooley for a period of five years, for $21,000 per year. It was renamed the Hooley Opera House.<ref name=chicagology/>

thumb|1871 engraving of Bryan

In the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, Bryan lost $2 million, with one significant part of this being the loss of his music hall in the fire.<ref name="byrd" /> After the fire, he provided a number of people displaced with refuge at Byrd's Nest.<ref name="byrd" /> Bryan was involved in helping revive the city after the fire.<ref name=ehm/><ref name="historyhighlight"/> Shortly before the fire Bryan had founded the Federal Savings Bank and Safe Depository, also known as the Fidelity Safe Depository.<ref name=harvard/><ref name="fidelity1">{{Cite web |title=Fidelity Safe Deposit Building I |url=https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire137/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201029014844/https://chicagology.com/prefire/prefire137/ |archive-date=October 29, 2020 |website=chicagology.com |publisher=Chicagology |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref> Despite the burning of its building, the vaults and safes were intact, and their contents survived the fire.<ref name=fidelity1/> Bryan rebuilt a new structure for the institution quickly after the fire.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Federal Savings Bank and Safe Depository II |url=https://chicagology.com/rebuilding/rebuilding109/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200930162940/https://chicagology.com/rebuilding/rebuilding109/ |archive-date=September 30, 2020 |access-date=May 28, 2021 |website=chicagology.com |publisher=Chicagology}}</ref> He purchased the metal from the Chicago Court House Bell which he used to fashion an alarm for his company, selling the rest to H.S. Everhart & Company which commissioned the U.S. Mint to strike commemorative medals from the metal.<ref name="chicagofirescrapbook">{{Cite web |title=A 19th century Chicago alderman's scrapbook discovered under the floorboards of a house slated for demolition |url=https://www.urbanremainschicago.com/news-and-events/2016/06/09/a-19th-century-chicago-aldermans-scrapbook-discovered-under-the-floorboards-of-a-house-slated-for-demoliton/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701063809/https://www.urbanremainschicago.com/news-and-events/2016/06/09/a-19th-century-chicago-aldermans-scrapbook-discovered-under-the-floorboards-of-a-house-slated-for-demoliton/ |archive-date=July 1, 2020 |website=urbanremainschicago.com |date=June 9, 2016 |publisher=Urban Remains |access-date=June 30, 2020}}</ref>

===District of Columbia and Colorado=== From December 3, 1877, through July 1, 1878, Bryan served as Commissioner of the District of Columbia.<ref name="tindall" /><ref name="byrd" /><ref name="larner">{{Cite journal |last=Larner |first=John B. |year=1920 |title=List of Principal Municipal Authorities of the Cities of Washington, Georgetown and the District of Columbia |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/40067144.pdf |journal=Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C. |publisher=Historical Society of Washington, D.C |volume=23 |page=184 |jstor=40067144 |access-date=December 31, 2020}}</ref> During this brief period, he and his wife briefly lived in Washington, D.C.<ref name="womanofmanyfriends" />

In 1878, Bryan stepped-down as president of Graceland Cemetery, turning over the presidency to his nephew Bryan Lathrop.<ref name="Florence" />

For a period of time, he and his wife moved to Colorado.<ref name="womanofmanyfriends" /> At the time of the 1880 United States census, he was recorded as residing in Clear Creek County, Colorado.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fifth Generation |url=http://jerrybryan.com/trees/cornelius/b48571.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200526032034/http://jerrybryan.com/trees/cornelius/b48571.html |archive-date=May 26, 2020 |access-date=December 31, 2020 |website=jerrybryan.com}}</ref> In the later 1880s, Bryan located his personal officers in Chicago's Home Insurance Building.<ref name="Selzer1"/>

thumb|Bryan around the time of the World's Columbian Exposition

===World's Columbian Exposition=== Bryan was a leading figure in the effort to bring the World's Columbian Exposition to Chicago.<ref name="CTdead26jan" /><ref name=ehm/><ref name="fairhistory">{{Cite web |date=November 1, 1893 |title=History of the World's Columbian Exposition |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/33772168 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210109150257/http://www.newspapers.com/image/33772168/ |archive-date=January 9, 2021 |access-date=January 5, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Inter Ocean |language=en}}</ref> Bryan convinced the Chicago City Council to pass legislation that would help the city in its efforts secure the world's fair.<ref name=ehm/> In 1890, he, alongside Chicago mayor DeWitt Clinton Cregier and former Illinois Central Railroad president Edward Turner Jeffery, gave the presentation for Chicago's bid to the fifteen member United States Senate committee that decided what location would be awarded the fair.<ref name=ehm/><ref name="fairhistory" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lederer |first=F. |date=1972 |title=Competition for the World's Columbian Exposition: The Chicago Campaign |journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society |volume=65 |issue=4 |pages=382–394}}</ref> Bryan's remarks were perhaps the most persuasive of the three speaking on behalf of the city. In his remarks Bryan, in part, retorted the hyperbolic and critical remarks about Chicago that had been issued by Chauncey Depew (who was representing New York City's interest in receiving the fair).<ref name="CTdead26jan" /><ref name="fairhistory" />

thumb|Bryan hosting the World's Columbian Exposition commissioners at his Byrd's Nest estate in 1893

After Chicago landed the fair, Bryan was appointed a commissioner-at-large of the World's Columbian Exposition Board created by federal legislation.<ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="byrd" /><ref name="fairhistory" /> He was ultimately the vice president of the World's Columbian Exposition, vice president of the World's Congress Auxiliary, Commissioner General of the Exposition and the Chairman of the Congresses Committee of Organization, and President of the World's Congress.<ref name="byrd" /><ref name="vamonde1">{{Cite web |title=The Art Institute of Chicago |url=https://www.vamonde.com/posts/the-art-institute-of-chicago/331 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185631/https://www.vamonde.com/posts/the-art-institute-of-chicago/331 |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |website=www.vamonde.com |publisher=Vamonde |access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Rookery Building |url=https://www.vamonde.com/posts/the-rookery-building/330 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185614/https://www.vamonde.com/posts/the-rookery-building/330 |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |website=www.vamonde.com |publisher=Vamonde |access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref> Bryan worked successfully to convince the Chicago City Council, Illinois General Assembly and United States legislature to pass legislation providing assistance to the fair's organizers.<ref name="fairhistory" /> In his travels through Europe promoting the exposition, he met with many ruling monarchs and Pope Leo XIII.<ref name="celebritygallery" /><ref name="Florence" /> During the exposition, he personally hosted many of the dignitaries and royals that attended the fair at his Byrd's Nest estate.<ref name="celebritygallery" />

At the same time that he was organizing the world's exposition, Bryan fell victim to what ultimately turned out to be a scam run by H. H. Holmes, a man who was later discovered to be a serial killer. He lost more than $9,000 after becoming involved in a copier machine business with Holmes at the advice Bryan's associate Fred Nind.<ref name="hhholmes1">{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=Ray |date=May 7, 2014 |title=All Chicago Library Branches closed May 7th for H.H. Holmes Execution Day! |url=http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-history-cop/2014/05/all-chicago-library-branches-closed-may-7th-for-h-h-holmes-execution-day/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181012130453/http://www.chicagonow.com/chicago-history-cop/2014/05/all-chicago-library-branches-closed-may-7th-for-h-h-holmes-execution-day/ |archive-date=October 12, 2018 |publisher=Chicago Now |access-date=May 7, 2020}}</ref> Holmes had paid Bryan a $7,000 promissory note to acquire a 51% stake in the venture from Bryan. Holmes never followed through with any cash compensation to Bryan. This was one of the largest amounts which Holmes was able to financially defraud any individual of in his long career of fraud.<ref name="Selzer1"/> Holmes would go on to fraudulently use Bryan's name on the papers of this company and a number of other scam ventures companies.<ref name=hhholmes1/><ref name=vamonde1/>

===Later years and death=== thumb|Bryan circa 1900

Bryan was widowed on March 5, 1898, when his wife of 48 years, Jennie, died at the age of 68 at their Byrd's Nest estate of paralysis that had impacted her brain and vocal organs, before reaching her heart. She had only developed the paralysis days earlier on March 3.<ref name="womanofmanyfriends">{{Cite web |date=March 28, 1898 |title=Woman of Many Friends |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737616/death-jennie-byrd-bryan-interocean/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185608/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/2737616/death-jennie-byrd-bryan-interocean/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=December 31, 2020 |website=www.newspapers.com |publisher=The Inter Ocean |pages=8}}</ref>

Bryan spent his last decade splitting time between Byrd's Nest and living out east, in Virginia and Washington, D.C.<ref name="CTdead26jan">{{Cite web |date=January 26, 1906 |title=Thomas B. Bryan Is Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462693/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185641/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462693/thomas-b-bryan-is-dead/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=January 6, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=Chicago Tribune |language=en}}</ref><ref name="ehmFB" /><ref name="WashPoObit">{{Cite web |date=January 29, 1906 |title=29 Jan 1906, Page 3 - The Washington Post at Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=41939658&article=9f182616-13ae-48d4-b1fb-94baabf8cb61&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI4OTY2NDA3LCJpYXQiOjE2MDk2MTU2MTUsImV4cCI6MTYwOTcwMjAxNX0.vR-AF_sVpDHpQnELewBHfX8uC2rE-ge3Ao19uHZ4uFw |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506142252/https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=41939658&article=9f182616-13ae-48d4-b1fb-94baabf8cb61&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI4OTY2NDA3LCJpYXQiOjE2MDk2MTU2MTUsImV4cCI6MTYwOTcwMjAxNX0.vR-AF_sVpDHpQnELewBHfX8uC2rE-ge3Ao19uHZ4uFw |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |access-date=January 2, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Washington Post |language=en}}</ref> He died January 26, 1906, in Washington, D.C.<ref name="memorials1">{{Cite book |last=Illinois |first=Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Commandery of the State of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXYVAQAAMAAJ |title=Memorials of deceased companions of the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States |date=1912 |pages=322–328 |language=en |access-date=May 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185615/https://books.google.com/books?id=kXYVAQAAMAAJ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 29, 1906 |title=29 Jan 1906, Page 3 - The Washington Post at Newspapers.com |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=41939658&article=9f182616-13ae-48d4-b1fb-94baabf8cb61&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI4OTY2NDA3LCJpYXQiOjE1ODg5OTQ2MzgsImV4cCI6MTU4OTA4MTAzOH0.nFXt9SqPBw-4Sv2L5ZSY1ATrv3IziQ4v8EUA-A0GdtU |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185633/https://www.newspapers.com/image/?clipping_id=41939658&article=9f182616-13ae-48d4-b1fb-94baabf8cb61&fcfToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJmcmVlLXZpZXctaWQiOjI4OTY2NDA3LCJpYXQiOjE1ODg5OTQ2MzgsImV4cCI6MTU4OTA4MTAzOH0.nFXt9SqPBw-4Sv2L5ZSY1ATrv3IziQ4v8EUA-A0GdtU |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Washington Post |language=en |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref>

Bryan is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C., where the Bryan family had a burying ground.<ref name="womanofmanyfriends" /><ref name="WashPoObit" /> His wife Jennie had been buried at Oak Hill Cemetery after her 1898 death.<ref name="womanofmanyfriends" /> His son Charles would be buried in the cemetery after his death in 1918,<ref>{{Cite web |date=March 17, 1918 |title=1918 Many Diplomats at Col Charles Page Bryan funeral, St John's Episcopal Church |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13836823/1918-many-diplomats-at-col-charles-page/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506205757/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/13836823/1918-many-diplomats-at-col-charles-page/ |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |access-date=May 6, 2021 |website=newspapers.com |publisher=The Washington Herald}}</ref> as would his daughter Jennie after her death in 1919<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 2, 1919 |title=Mrs. Jennie B. Payne. |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462754/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185610/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78462754/obituary-for-jennie-byrd-payne/ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=May 6, 2021 |website=Newspapers.com |publisher=The Washington Times |language=en}}</ref> and his son-in-law John Barton Payne after his death in 1935.<ref>{{Cite web |title=John Barton Payne Personal Papers (SC-31) |url=https://www.vmfa.museum/wp-subsite/archives/john-barton-payne-personal-papers-sc-31/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506085818/https://www.vmfa.museum/wp-subsite/archives/john-barton-payne-personal-papers-sc-31/ |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |access-date=May 6, 2021 |website=Virginia Museum of Fine Arts}}</ref>

After his death, ownership of the Byrd's Nest estate passed to his son, Charles. However, Charles rarely lived there due to his service as a diplomat. In 1920, the estate was given to a charitable organization for the purposes of serving as an orphanage. After this proved unsuccessful, the estate was sold to a real estate developer in 1924 and was subsequently subdivided for residential development. No physical remnants remain of the estate that Bryan had built.<ref name="historyhighlight"/>

==Art collection and patronage of George Peter Alexander Healy== Bryan commissioned many works by George Peter Alexander Healy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Look-alike |url=http://www.longcamp.com/lookalike.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225181052/http://www.longcamp.com/lookalike.html |archive-date=February 25, 2020 |website=www.longcamp.com |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref><ref name="historicalart">{{Cite web |title=George Peter Alexander Healy (1813–1894) |url=https://www.illinoisart.org/george-peter-alexander-healy |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200628203559/https://www.illinoisart.org/george-peter-alexander-healy |archive-date=June 28, 2020 |publisher=Illinois Historical Art Project |language=en |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref> The two had become friends around the time Bryan moved to Cottage Hill (Elmhurst).<ref name="historyhighlight"/> In 1857, Healy purchased the Hill Cottage (a cottage in Cottage Hill) from Bryan, where Healy lived for next six years. This made him neighbors with Bryan during this period.<ref name=historicalart/><ref>{{Cite web |date=September 23, 2019 |title=Elmhurst |url=https://dupagehistory.org/dupage-roots/elmhurst/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200814183532/https://dupagehistory.org/dupage-roots/elmhurst/ |archive-date=August 14, 2020 |website=DuPage County Historical Society |language=en |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref> Healy created a number of paintings of the Bryan family.<ref name=Healey1>{{cite web |title=G. P. A. Healy |url=https://www.illinoisart.org/george-peter-alexander-healy |website=Illinois Historical Art Project |access-date=27 April 2024 |language=en}}</ref> He also partnered with Bryan in the founding of Graceland Cemetery.<ref name="Florence" /> In addition, Bryan's daughter Jennie became a student of Healy's.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jennie Byrd Bryan (Primary Title) – (19.1.25) |url=https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-7899886/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506111347/https://www.vmfa.museum/piction/6027262-7899886/ |archive-date=May 6, 2021 |access-date=December 31, 2020 |website=Virginia Museum of Fine Arts {{!}}}}</ref> On one occasion in 1860, Bryan purchased all the paintings Healy's entire inventory of Heale's painting gallery to and displayed the works in a hall that he owned on Dearborn Street.<ref name=goodspeed/>

In Bryan's art collection were portraits which Henry Clay, Edward Everett, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Daniel Webster had posed for.<ref name="celebritygallery" /> Bryan also owned a collection of paintings of all presidents of the United States,<ref name="celebritygallery" /> many of which had been painted by Healy.<ref name="celebritygallery" /> Bryan gifted his collection of presidential portraits to the Corcoran Gallery of Art.<ref name="celebritygallery" />

After Bryan's death, many of the paintings of Healy's that he still owned were passed on to his daughter Jennie.<ref name="spokesman">{{Cite web |date=1920 |title=The Spokesman and Harness World, Volume 36 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DGQ-AQAAMAAJ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210507121643/https://books.google.com/books?id=DGQ-AQAAMAAJ |archive-date=May 7, 2021 |publisher=Spokesman Publishing Company |language=en |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref> After her death in 1919,<ref name=kohler1/> in 1920, Jennie Byrd's Payne's widowed husband, John Barton Payne, gave a collection of forty masterpieces to the State of Virginia, a gift valued at time at over $1 million.<ref name="spokesman" /> In this gift were several paintings Bryan commissioned from Healy.<ref name="spokesman" /> This gift, which was given by Payne alongside a financial gift of $100,000 for a museum to house the art, came with a stipulation that the state must match his gift. This was eventually done in 1932, and construction began on the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Slipek Jr. |first=Edwin |date=March 30, 2010 |title=Open Indulgence |work=Style Weekly |url=http://styleweekly.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=Articles%2FNews&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=8F3A7027421841978F18BE895F87F791&tier=4&id=E531F5E982A6493197E1DA0088DC0196 |url-status=live |access-date=February 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185617/https://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/open-indulgence/Content?oid=1382068 |archive-date=May 28, 2021}}</ref>

{{Gallery | title = | align = | footer = | style = | state = | height = | width = | captionstyle = | File:Thomas Barbour Bryan and Family (1856) by George Peter Alexander Healy.jpg | alt12= | ''Thomas Barbour Bryan and Family'' by George Peter Alexander Healy, an 1856 portrait of Bryan with his family, which is now in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum<ref>{{Cite web |title=Thomas Barbour Bryan and Family |url=https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_19.1.22 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185644/https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_19.1.22 |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |access-date=January 3, 2021 |website=npg.si.edu |publisher=Smithsonian American Art Museum |language=en}}</ref> | Jennie “Jane” Byrd Bryan by George Peter Alexander Healy (1859) (cropped).jpg | alt1= | 1859 portrait by Healy of Bryan's wife, which is now in the collection of the Elmhurst History Museum<ref>{{cite web |last1=Megan |first1=Graydon |title=Elmhurst History Museum unveils portrait with deep connections to city's past |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2023/04/25/elmhurst-history-museum-unveils-portrait-with-deep-connections-to-citys-past |website=Chicago Tribune |access-date=21 March 2024 |date=25 April 2023}}</ref> | File:Jennie Byrd Bryan (1874) by George Peter Alexander Healy.jpg | alt3= | ''Jennie Byrd Bryan'' by George Peter Alexander Healy, an 1874 portrait of Bryan's daughter, which is now in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts<ref>{{Cite web |title=Jennie Byrd Bryan – George P.A. Healy |url=https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/jennie-byrd-bryan/KgE5qGQnUv7Pwg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921040401/https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/jennie-byrd-bryan/KgE5qGQnUv7Pwg |archive-date=September 21, 2020 |access-date=January 3, 2021 |website=Google Arts & Culture |language=en}}</ref> }}

==Collector of historic memorabilia== [[File:Facsimile of the emancipation proclamation, (Thomas B. Bryan). (Library of Congress).jpg|thumb|Facsimile which Bryan printed of the original handwritten draft of the Emancipation Proclamation]]

In his life, Bryan acquired several noteworthy pieces of historic memorabilia.

After the Great Chicago Fire, Bryan purchased the broken remains of the bell from the city's lost courthouse at an auction. He kept parts of the bell, but sold most of the bell's remains to H.S. Everhart & Company, who made one-inch tall miniature bells as souvenirs.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bales |first=Richard F. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lw6BCgAAQBAJ |title=The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. O'Leary's Cow |date=April 18, 2005 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=9780786423583 |page=26 |language=en |access-date=May 9, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185615/https://books.google.com/books?id=lw6BCgAAQBAJ |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> The courthouse bell was notable in relation to the fire, as it had been one of the bells in the city that was rung to warn citizens of the fire.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Billock |first=Jennifer |date=January 24, 2018 |title=Five Places Where You Can Still See Remnants of the Great Chicago Fire |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/remnants-great-chicago-fire-180967918/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201023183143/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/remnants-great-chicago-fire-180967918/ |archive-date=October 23, 2020 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en |access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref>

After notable people had been invited to send items to the Northwestern Sanitary Fair to auction, Abraham Lincoln sent the original handwritten draft of the Emancipation Proclamation.<ref name="Schroeder-Lein">{{Cite book |last=Schroeder-Lein |first=Glenna R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Os6n80YZ0PIC |title=Lincoln and Medicine |date=October 18, 2012 |publisher=SIU Press |isbn=9780809331956 |page=68 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185646/https://books.google.com/books?id=Os6n80YZ0PIC |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref> Bryan was successful in bidding for it, paying $3,000 for it, the item being the highest bid item on auction.<ref name=Schroeder-Lein/><ref name="nih">{{Cite web |title=DHHS Publication No. (NIH). |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ern1MvGtMrgC |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528185612/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ern1MvGtMrgC |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |publisher=Department of Health and Human Services. |page=103 |language=en |access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref> Bryan had lithographic copies made and sold for the benefit of the Sanitary Commission.<ref name=Schroeder-Lein/> Bryan gifted the document to the Chicago Soldier's Home,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Emancipation Proclamation {{!}} National Archives |url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1993/summer/emancipation-proclamation.html |website=www.archives.gov |date=August 15, 2016 |publisher=United States National Archives |access-date=21 March 2024}}</ref><ref name=nih/> who in turn entrusted it to the Chicago Historical Society for safekeeping.<ref name=nih/> However, this original document was lost in the Great Chicago Fire.<ref name=nih/><ref>{{cite web |title=Emancipation Proclamation on Display (March 1998) - Library of Congress Information Bulletin |url=https://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/9803/emanc.html |website=www.loc.gov |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=21 March 2024}}</ref>

==Electoral history== {{Election box begin no change| title='''1861 Chicago mayoral election'''<ref name="mayors" />}} {{Election box winning candidate with party link no change |party = Republican Party (United States) |candidate = Julian Sidney Rumsey |votes = 8,274 |percentage = 55.62}} {{Election box candidate no change |party = People's |candidate = Thomas Barbour Bryan |votes = 6,601 |percentage = 44.38}} {{Election box total no change |votes = 14,875 |percentage = 100 }} {{Election box end}}

{{Election box begin no change| title='''1863 Chicago mayoral election'''<ref name=goodspeed/><ref name="dicksimpson1" />}} {{Election box winning candidate with party link no change |party = Democratic Party (United States) |candidate = Francis Cornwall Sherman |votes = 10,252 |percentage = 50.39}} {{Election box candidate with party link no change |party = National Union Party (United States) |candidate = Thomas Barbour Bryan |votes = 10,095 |percentage = 49.62}} {{Election box total no change |votes = 20,347 |percentage = 100 }} {{Election box end}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{commons category-inline}}

{{s-start}} {{s-ppo}} {{s-bef|before= John Wentworth}} {{s-ttl|title=Democratic nominee for Mayor of Chicago|years=1861}} {{s-aft|after=Francis Cornwall Sherman}} {{s-bef|before= Charles N. Holden}} {{s-ttl|title=Republican nominee for Mayor of Chicago|years=1863}} {{s-aft|after=George W. Gage}} {{s-end}} {{Barbour family}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Thomas Barbour}} Category:1828 births Category:1906 deaths Category:Illinois Democrats Category:Illinois Republicans Category:Politicians from Elmhurst, Illinois Category:Politicians from Chicago Category:Illinois lawyers Category:Lawyers from Cincinnati Thomas Bryan Category:Washington, D.C., Republicans Category:People of Illinois in the American Civil War Category:Members of the Board of Commissioners for the District of Columbia Category:World's Columbian Exposition Category:Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) Category:Politicians from Alexandria, Virginia Category:Lawyers from Alexandria, Virginia Category:Businesspeople from Alexandria, Virginia Category:Harvard Law School alumni Category:Politicians from Washington, D.C. Category:Colorado lawyers Category:Colorado Republicans Category:Businesspeople from Colorado