Statue of The Republic
41°46′46.6″N 87°34′47.7″W / 41.779611°N 87.579917°W / 41.779611; -87.579917
The Statue of The Republic is a 24-foot-high (7.3 m) gilded bronze sculpture in Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois by Daniel Chester French. It is based on a colossal original statue, which was a centerpiece of the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. That statue was made of temporary materials and was destroyed after the fair. The smaller-scale replica sculpted by the same artist was erected in 1918 in commemoration of both the 25th anniversary of the Exposition and the Illinois' statehood centennial. The replacement statue is at the south end of the park at the intersection of East Hayes and South Richards Drive, adjacent to the golf course and approximately where the exposition's Administration Building and Electricity Building once stood.[1] The statue was funded by the Benjamin Ferguson Fund,[2] which commissioned French to cast this recreation of the original 65-foot-tall (20 m) statue that stood on the grounds of the Exposition of 1893. Edith Minturn Stokes served as French's model for the original statue.[3] Henry Bacon, the architect of the Lincoln Memorial, designed the festooned pedestal for the replica.[4]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Looking_West_From_Peristyle%2C_Court_of_Honor_and_Grand_Basin%2C_1893.jpg/285px-Looking_West_From_Peristyle%2C_Court_of_Honor_and_Grand_Basin%2C_1893.jpg)
The statue's right hand holds a globe, on which an eagle perches with wings spread. The other hand grasps a staff with a plaque that reads "liberty", partly obscured by an encircling laurel wreath. The original at the Exposition had a Phrygian cap on top of the staff. It was only partly gilded (no gold on the exposed skin of the head, neck and arms), but the replica is completely gilded.[5]
The original statue, constructed in 1893, stood in front of the Court of Honor, inside the Great Basin pool.[6][1] However, on August 28, 1896 that statue was destroyed by fire on order of the park commissioners.[7] The replacement statue stands in the area between the exposition's Electricity and Administration Buildings[8] (both demolished after the exposition), at the intersection of Richards Drive and Hayes Drive. One of two additional replicas of the statue stands in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.
The statue is referred to by Chicago historians by the colloquial name, the "Golden Lady."[9] It was designated a Chicago Landmark on June 4, 2003.[1]
See also
References
- ^ a b c "Statue of The Republic". City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division. March 15, 2006. Archived from the original on December 26, 2008. Retrieved September 14, 2007.
- ^ Hermann, Andrew (August 9, 1991). "Public statues are lumberman's legacy to city". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on July 25, 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2009.
- ^ Morrone, Francis (1997), "The Ghost of Monsieur Stokes", City Journal (August), New York: The Manhattan Institute, archived from the original on January 3, 2011, retrieved August 2, 2015
- ^ Ira J. Bach and Mary Lackritz Gray, A Guide to Chicago's Public Sculpture, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983
- ^ "Jackson Park's The Republic". Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference. Archived from the original on September 3, 2003. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
- ^ Original photo
- ^ "Death of the Republic: The fiery end to the golden colossus of the 1893 World's Fair". The World's Fair Chicago 1893. August 28, 2021.
- ^ "Overlay of modern roads". Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017. Retrieved August 5, 2015. The new statue is in the northern triangle.
- ^ "Jackson Park". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
External links
Media related to The Republic at Wikimedia Commons
- v
- t
- e
(public)
- The Minute Man (1874)
- John Harvard (1884)
- Memory (1886–1887)
- Thomas Gallaudet Memorial (1889)
- Lewis Cass (1889)
- Death and the Sculptor (1889)
- Thomas Starr King (1892)
- John Boyle O'Reilly Memorial (1896)
- T. A. Chapman Memorial (1896–1897)
- Richard Morris Hunt Memorial (1898)
- Rufus Choate (1898)
- Ulysses S. Grant (1899)
- George H. Perkins (1902)
- Joseph Hooker (1903)
- Alma Mater (1903–1904)
- Colonel James Anderson Monument (1904)
- William Francis Bartlett (1904)
- Four Continents (1905–1907)
- Charles Devens (1906)
- Progress of the State (1906)
- James Oglethorpe Monument (1907–1910)
- George Frisbie Hoar (1908)
- Russell Alger Memorial Fountain (1913–1921)
- Samuel Spencer (1910)
- Statue of Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln, Nebraska; 1912)
- Butt–Millet Memorial Fountain (1913)
- Wisconsin (1913–1914)
- The Spirit of Life (1914)
- Wendell Phillips (1914)
- Lafayette Memorial (1917)
- The Republic (1918; replica of 1893 statue)
- Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial (1918)
- Abraham Lincoln (Lincoln Memorial; 1920)
- Dupont Circle Fountain (1921)
- Marquis de Lafayette (1921)
- Alfred Tredway White Memorial (1923)
- Victory statue, First Division Monument (1924)
- George Robert White Memorial (1924)
- Washington Irving Memorial (1925–1926)
- Westinghouse Memorial (1926–1930)
- William Henry Seward Memorial (1930)
- Beneficence (1930)
- Equestrian statue of George Washington
- Pulitzer Prize (1917)
- Chesterwood
- Henry Flagg French (father)
- William M.R. French (brother)
- William M. Richardson (grandfather)
- Audrey Munson (model)
- Berkshire Playhouse
- National Sculpture Society
- Minute Man National Historical Park
- Lexington–Concord Sesquicentennial half dollar
- Daniel Chester French: American Sculptor (2022 documentary)