As part of its 50th anniversary celebration, the Chicago-based McCormick Tribune Foundation has announced fourth-quarter 2004 grants totaling $32 million to a range of local and national organizations.

Chicago-area grant recipients included Rush University Medical Center ($7.5 million), Northwestern Memorial Foundation ($5 million), the Museum of Science and Industry ($4 million), and the Chicago Historical Society ($1 million), the Family Institute ($1 million), and Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital ($1 million).

Nationally, the foundation awarded $1 million to the D.C.-based Gettysburg National Battlefield Museum Foundation to create the McCormick Tribune Foundation Gallery, which will include a new museum, visitor center, and educational complex, in conjunction with a major revitalization project at the battlefield. The gallery will also honor William H. Medill, the great-uncle of Robert R. McCormick, the foundation's founder. A major in the Union army, Medill died from wounds he received during the Gettysburg campaign.

"We are delighted to support this initiative," said foundation president Richard A. Behrenhausen. "This grant will honor Colonel Robert R. McCormick's legacy well because the gallery will examine journalistic and military perspectives of the Civil War, which represent two important facets of McCormick's life as a soldier and newspaper publisher."