Born November 14, 1839; Bloomington, Indiana
Died January 11, 1905; Chicago, Illinois
“No one among the trustees was more zealous in his support of Theodore Thomas and more enthusiastic in advocating the new hall, than was Mr. Hamill.” — Philo Adams Otis, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Its Organization, Growth and Development, 1891–1924
Charles D. Hamill was committed to advancing the “cause of good music” in Chicago at a time when the recently founded city’s cultural institutions were being established. He was a longstanding friend of the Chicago Orchestra’s founder and first music director Theodore Thomas, and he performed the solo piano part in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra in 1870. He was one of the founders of the Mendelssohn Society in 1858, and he remained a member until the society disbanded in 1865. Hamill was also a member of the Apollo Club, a choral group founded in 1873 that frequently performed with Thomas’ eponymous orchestra as well as the Chicago Orchestra. He acted as the club’s president for the 1886–87 season.
Hamill began work in Chicago as a messenger boy for dry goods company L.D. Olmsted & Co. After a few years as a banker, he entered business as a partner in Singer & Co. provision merchants. Hamill later founded a commissioning company, working with a series of partners before setting up shop with his son Robert as Charles D. Hamill & Co. A successful businessman, Hamill was elected president of the Board of Trade in the 1890s. Like many of his contemporaries, he was involved in a myriad of clubs, including the Chicago Literary Club and the Twentieth Century Club, a society promoting arts and culture in the city. Hamill served as director and vice-president of the Chicago Club and trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Fellow founding trustee of the Orchestral Association Charles Norman Fay paid tribute to Hamill after his death, stating that “among men prominent in Chicago’s early life and growth [Hamill was] almost the first lover and promoter of good music.” Hamill, said Fay, consistently exercised “active influence and open purse . . . in aid of good art.”
