A Closer Look at Discussed Monuments

from September 12 - 18, 2022

Some Perspective on the Monument Debate

Italo Balbo Monument

east of Soldier Field Italo Balbo flew to Chicago’s Century of Progress world’s fair in 1933 as part of a 24-aviator formation. The monument to this feat, on the site of the Italian Pavilion at the fair, was a gift of the fascist government of Italy. According to historian John Mark Hansen, Balbo planned the insurrectional March on Rome that installed Benito Mussolini as dictator; as colonial governor of Libya, Balbo supported Italy’s forced annexation of Ethiopia. Recommendation: place the ancient column in storage or consider long-term loan to a private organization.

Indian Boundary Lines Plaque

Installed at Clark Street and Rogers Avenue, the northern boundary of a 20- mile by 70-mile tract of land negotiated at the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The land extended from Lake Michigan to the Illinois River near Ottawa and was envisioned for construction of a canal between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River that set up Chicago as a trading center. Recommendation: edit the text to tell a more holistic story.

General Philip Henry Sheridan

at Sheridan Road and Belmont Avenue Sheridan employed the same scorched-earth tactics as head of the Department of the Missouri in 1867 as he did as a Civil War general. He allowed bison poaching on tribal lands that nearly exterminated the species. The statue has also been repeatedly vandalized. Recommendation: consider long-term loan or donation to a private organization.

The Defense

(among four bas-reliefs on DuSable Michigan Avenue Bridge) American Indians are used as merely a foil to help define the heroism of colonizing forces. Recommendation: Because the sculptures are attached to the bridgehouses at each corner, detachment without damage to those buildings would be difficult. Powerful, non-physical, and possibly episodic, deactivation or disruption is recommended.

The other bas -reliefs featured on the DuSable Michigan Avenue bridge:

Regeneration

The Pioneers

Discoverers

Jacques Marquette/Louis Jolliet Memorial

This 1926 sculpture at 24th and Marshall boulevards, one block west of California, was intended to mark the spot where the missionary and the fur trader realized that a canal at what is now Chicago could link the Great Lakes system with the Mississippi River. However, the Algonquin guide appears to be cowering, reinforcing stereotypes about American Indians and glorifying Western expansion. Recommendation: The artwork should be placed in storage, or loaned, long-term, to a private organization.

Indians (The Bowman and the Spearman)

flanking Ida B. Wells Plaza at Michigan Avenue The Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in the U.S.A. hosted a discussion by Croatian art historians regarding the 1928 works by Croatian artist Ivan Meštrovic and noted that they are a source of community pride. Other scholarly panelists said the sculptures were inaccurate (local Indians were not horse people), stereotypical and sexualized imagery, a romanticized and anachronistic identity harmful to the American Indian community. Recommendation: permanent and/or ongoing artistic prioritized interventions that will help viewers reconsider the works and their subjects.

Kinzie Mansion Plaque

Created for Chicago’s centennial as a city, the plaque minimizes the prominence of Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable as first settler, denies the existence of Native peoples, and glorifies “the city’s first white child.” Recommendation: place it in storage, commission new signage with a more accurate, inclusive story of the city’s founding.

Illinois Centennial Monument

in Logan Square Completed for the 100th anniversary of the state in 1918, the 50-foot Doric column features base with a procession of allegorical personifications of labor, industry and agriculture, American Indians and explorers. Recommendation: engage American Indian community and revise the monument’s accompanying text

Out of a collection of more than 500 monumental sculptures and commemorative plaques and artworks on the public way and in Chicago parks, these were identified for a public discussion by the Chicago Monuments Project. Additional discussed monuments are featured on the following pages. All photos for this story © Jyoti Srivastava, unless noted.

• The Alarm, 1884