William LeBaron Jenney was born in Fairhaven, Massacussetts in 1832. In 1850, he attended Harvard University to study engineering. He left the school, disliking the program, and moved to study in France. By 1853, he was attending in the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris. In 1856 he graduated and worked as a structural engineer of a railroad in Mexico. During the Civil War, he joined the U.S Army Corps of Engineering. Almost 2 years after the war ended, in 1867, Jenney moved to Chicago; he opened an office of architecture a year later. He applied all his knowledge and his experience into his designs.His most popular work, the Home Insurance building, gained him great fame as it is considered the first skyscraper; it is recorded as the first building to be constructed on a steel-frame rather than an iron cast. He is credited for innovation and modernization of architecture, as he introduced a new form of construction to the community. Along his work with metal frames, Jenney was also considered an inspirational figure to architects that worked with him, or attended his classes. Jenney was known as one of the most experienced architects and always worked to further perfect his designs. After Jenney's death in 1907, future architects continued working with his architectural practices. Jenney's works led to the popularity of skyscrapers and the present day buildings that stand tall in Chicago. (Colombia Collage Library)