Donato (Di Donato)Di Donato family photographic archive
Stonework
Before & After
Forty-five historic photographs preserve both sides of the craft: carved limestone standing on the mill floor and the finished work installed on buildings.
Finished building + workshop sequence
Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
This is a true before-and-after sequence. Finished views show the equestrian panels installed between the exterior columns—most clearly in archive photograph 006—while photographs 017–029 document those same horse-and-rider reliefs on the shop floor before installation. The sequence also includes the building’s standing limestone figures in finished and workshop views.
29 photographs
Bruner & Donato Carving Contractors
Workshop Portfolio and Architectural Ornament
Many originals carry the visible studio credit “Bruner & Donato, Carving Contractors, Bloomington, Ind.” The photographs document pulpits, standing figures, narrative reliefs, moldings, capitals, masks, crests and pedimental sculpture. The photographs do not give the partners’ first names; research continues into whether the Donato participant was Harry, Chris, or both.
12 photographs
Finished structure + carving details
Tribune Tower, Chicago — Family Archive Identification
These three photographs are grouped in the family archive with the Tribune Tower material: a finished exterior view, the monumental entrance and two carved details. Formal corroboration against architectural records remains a research priority.
3 photographs
Newly identified · shop floor to finished installation
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
Evanston, Illinois · Tallmadge & Watson · 1928–1929
Archive photograph 030 shows the church’s carved Select Buff Indiana limestone pulpit assembled before installation. The original photograph is marked “Bruner & Donato, Carving Contractors, Bloomington, Ind.” and “American Mill, Indiana Limestone Co., 4-21-28.”
Indiana University’s matching record identifies the completed work at St. Luke’s and lists Indiana Limestone Company (ILCO) as the cut-stone contractor. Taken together, the photographs document Bruner & Donato executing the carving within an ILCO project—consistent with family history concerning Chris’s relationship with ILCO and later contract carving for the company.
- IU project series
- IL2225
- Stone
- Select Buff limestone
- Subjects
- Pulpits · mills · stone carving
Documented public sculpture · Bloomington, Indiana
The Spirit of the Fighting Yank
These modern family photographs document Harry D. Donato’s role in the courthouse monument. The pedestal inscription names Fluck Cut Stone Company as presenter, Harry D. Donato as carver, E. M. Viquesney as sculptor, and the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce as the organization that erected it. The Smithsonian inventory record ↗ independently repeats that attribution under control number IAS IN000117.
Institutional records and comparison photographs
Follow the evidence
These links open the museum, university and public-archive records used to identify projects and compare the family photographs with completed buildings. A linked building photograph documents appearance and location; only records explicitly naming a Donato or Bruner & Donato are treated as attribution evidence.
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church
IU photographs identify the family archive pulpit’s finished location and document it both at the American Mill and installed inside the Evanston church.
Open primary IU record ↗Named carvers333 North Michigan
IU catalog results pair the address with the credit “Bruner & Donato, carvers.”
Search IU records ↗Named contractorFirst Methodist Church, Elgin
One of ten IU photographs crediting C. D. Donato Cut Stone Co.; project series IL4818.
Open IU record ↗Building documentationTribune Tower
UIC C. William Brubaker Collection photograph. Useful for comparison, not yet independent Donato attribution.
Open UIC photograph ↗Museum collectionMuseum of Science and Industry
Search Griffin MSI’s digitized holdings alongside the family archive’s before-and-after sequence.
Search museum collection ↗Named carverSpirit of the Fighting Yank
Smithsonian record naming Harry D. Donato as carver and noting an additional image on file.
Open Smithsonian record ↗