Born June 24, 1844; Stratford, New York
Died June 1, 1922; Pasdena, California
Adolphus Clay Bartlett epitomized the romantic rags-to-riches success story idealized in America’s Gilded Age. Born in Stratford, New York in 1844, Bartlett worked as a schoolteacher and clerk before coming to Chicago as an “almost penniless boy” in 1863. He entered the hardware industry as an office worker in Tuttle, Hibbard and Company appliances merchants. Bartlett built his career within the company, becoming a partner in 1877 and later president.
A leading Chicago businessman, Bartlett was a director of the First National Bank, Northern Trust Company and Liverpool and London Globe Insurance Company, and he sat on the Chicago Board of Trade. Bartlett served as a trustee of both Beloit College and the University of Chicago and was a director of the Art Institute of Chicago and member of the Chicago Board of Education. He participated in charitable organizations, acting as the president of the Chicago House for the Friendless and vice-president of the Old People’s Home.
Bartlett also was a member of an impressive array of Chicago clubs, including the Chicago, Union League, Commercial, Caxton, Chicago Literary, Onwentsia, Quadrangle and Twentieth Century. He became one of the five founding trustees of the Orchestral Association, serving during the Chicago Orchestra’s first three seasons. He continued to support the ensemble after his resignation as trustee in 1894, and his will included a generous bequest to the Orchestral Association.
