[2][3] Ferguson's gift set out terms whereby the Art Institute of Chicago was empowered to select subjects and sites for "The erection and maintenance of enduring statuary and monuments, in whole or in part of stone, granite or bronze in the parks, along the boulevards or in other public places."
The Art Institute also funded Carl Milles's Fountain of the Tritons, which sits in its courtyard, with this fund, but by the 1930s began to tire of standard sculpture and sought a court ruling to include buildings within the terms of the agreement.
[4][5] A relief sculpture of Benjamin Ferguson appears on the back on Fountain of the Great Lakes.
[6] The fund also commissioned the recognizable The Bowman and The Spearman sculptures by Ivan Meštrović on opposite sides of Congress Parkway at Michigan Avenue and in Grant Park.
[10] Ferguson lived in the Jackson Boulevard District of the Near West Side community area of Chicago, where he built a red brick Queen Anne house in 1883 that took up three city lots.