Up until the 20th century, racism was widely spread and the only people whose art was deemed as worthy was by authors or artists who were white. Sometime in the 20th century, thanks to movements such as the civil rights movement and the harlem renaissance, the public became widely introduced to a new wave of artists that were not only white upper class, but rather from different nations, of different skin color, and similar. Where once it was almost blasphemous to say that someone who was African-American could be a great artist, now people began acknowledging diversity through artists such as Langston Hughes, Toni Morison, and many more.
It was designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan and built between 1890 and 1891. It was named for local brewer, building contractor, and financier Ellis Wainwright.
