Over the years, this middle bedroom had many different occupants.  When Joseph Medill first built this house in 1986, he may have slept here.  However, since Medill really built the house for his daughter and son-in-law, the Colonel’s parents may have used this middle bedroom at some time between 1896 and 1920.  Between 1920 and the time when the house was re-modeled in the mid-1930s, the Colonel probably used this room as his own bedroom.  The bathroom for this room, which was across the hall, became a modern kitchen in the 1970s.

The middle bedroom now represents a guest bedroom.  Famous guests who stayed at the mansion include Charles and Ann Lindbergh, Gloria Swanson, Lillian Gish, Hedda Hopper and General Summerall, who was McCormick’s commander during World War One.

The photograph on the card table depicts Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator who was the first to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.  Charles Lindbergh signed this photograph with the tender endearment: “To Robert McCormick from your friend, Charles Lindbergh.”   When Lindbergh completed his successful trans-Atlantic flight, McCormick invited him to Chicago, where the Colonel staged a huge public reception for him at Soldier Field.  McCormick eventually acquired three of his own airplanes, and he built an airstrip here at Cantigny, which was west of the Visitor Center.

One of the most intriguing collections of paintings in the whole mansion is in this middle bedroom.  Eight watercolors by American artist John Key (1832-1920) show scenes of the 1893 World’s Colombian Exposition, which attracted over 7 million visitors to Chicago.  This rare set of original watercolors includes an image of the Expo’s Fine Arts building, which is now Museum of Science and Industry in Hyde Park.