Helen Gardner lectured in Illinois.
The Art Institute of Chicago , founded in 1879 and located in Chicago 's Grant Park , is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States . Chicago . With over 2.7 million residents , it is also the most populous city in both the state of Illinois and the Midwestern United States . Helen Gardner (art historian) . In 1920 she began lecturing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago , where she would spend the rest of her career , with the exception of short appointments at UCLA and the University of Chicago . The University of Chicago ( U of C , Chicago , or UChicago ) is a private research university in Chicago , Illinois .