Statue of The Republic

1918 sculpture by Daniel Chester French

Statue of The Republic

A one-third scale replica of The Republic, a centerpiece of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Artist| Daniel Chester French
Year| 1918 (replica of 1893 original)
Type| Bronze
Dimensions| 730 cm (24 ft)
Location| Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois
Coordinates| 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. Minnie Clark, an original Gibson Girl, and Edith Minturn Stokes served as French's models for the original statue.[3] Henry Bacon, the architect of the Lincoln Memorial, designed the festooned pedestal for the replica.[4]

Daniel Chester French's original statue The Republic at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago, facing the Administration Building across the Great Basin. This version had a Phrygian cap draped on the staff.

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

[edit]

* List of public art in Chicago
* Public sculptures by Daniel Chester French

## References

[edit]

1. ^ 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.
2. ^ 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.
3. ^ 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
4. ^ Ira J. Bach and Mary Lackritz Gray, A Guide to Chicago's Public Sculpture, Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1983
5. ^ "Jackson Park's The Republic". Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference. Archived from the original on September 3, 2003. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
6. ^ Original photo
7. ^ "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.
8. ^ "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.
9. ^ "Jackson Park". Encyclopedia of Chicago. Retrieved April 18, 2012.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to The Republic at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
* e

Daniel Chester French

Sculptures
(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

Medals|

* Pulitzer Prize (1917)

Museums|

* Chesterwood

Related|

* 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)
* SS Daniel Chester French

* v
* t
* e

Benjamin Ferguson Fund works

* Alexander Hamilton Statue, 1918 (Pratt/Coolidge)
* The Bowman and The Spearman, 1928 (Meštrović)
* Defense and Regeneration, 1928 (Hering)
* Ferguson Building
* Fountain of the Great Lakes, 1913 (Taft)
* Fountain of the Tritons, 1931 (Milles)
* Fountain of Time, 1922 (Taft/Van Doren Shaw)
* Helping Hands, 1996 (Bourgeois)
* I have a Dream, 1978 (Pattison)
* Illinois Centennial Monument, 1918 (Bacon/Longman)
* In Celebration of the 200th Anniversary of the Founding of the Republic, 1976 (Noguchi)
* Jacques Marquette Memorial, 1926 (MacNeil)
* Man Enters the Cosmos, 1980 (Moore)
* Man on a Bench, 1980 (Segal)
* Nuclear Energy, 1967 (Moore)
* Slabs of the Sunburnt West, 1975 (Hunt)
* Spirit of Music, 1923 (Polasek)
* Statue of The Republic, 1918 (French)
* The Waltz of Hands (Bourgeois)

Sculpture for DuSable Park, not yet installed (Martin Puryear)

* v
* t
* e

Chicago Landmark memorials and monuments

National Historic Landmark,
National Register of Historic Places,
Chicago Landmark|

* Site of the First Self-Sustaining Controlled Nuclear Chain Reaction
* Nuclear Energy
* Site of the Haymarket Tragedy
* Union Stock Yard Gate

National Historic Landmark,
National Register of Historic Places|

* Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable Homesite

National Register of Historic Places,
Chicago Landmark|

* Douglas Tomb
* Getty Tomb
* Victory Monument

Chicago Landmark|

* Abraham Lincoln: The Man statue
* Buckingham Fountain
* Heald Square Monument
* Illinois–Indiana State Line Boundary Marker
* Rosehill Cemetery entrance
* Site of Fort Dearborn
* Site of the John and Mary Jones House
* Site of the Origin of the Chicago Fire of 1871
* Site of the Origins of the I&M Canal
* Statue of The Republic
* Wigwam (Site of the Sauganash Hotel)

* v
* t
* e

Public art in Chicago

Works|

* 8th Street Fountain
* Agora
* The Alarm
* Allow Me
* America's Courtyard
* Balbo Monument
* Batcolumn
* Big Beaver Totem Pole
* The Bowman and The Spearman
* Brachiosaurus replicas
* Burnham Pavilions
* Chevron
* Chicago Picasso
* Chicago Rising from the Lake
* Chicago Stock Exchange Arch
* Children's Fountain
* Cloud Gate
* Constellation
* Crack the Whip
* Crossing
* Crown Fountain
* The Crusader
* Cubi VII
* Dream Lady
* Eli Bates Fountain
* Eternal Silence
* Flamingo
* Flying Dragon
* Fountain Girl
* Fountain of the Great Lakes
* Fountain of Time
* Goethe Monument
* Governor Horner State Memorial
* Green Lightning
* Horse and Rider
* Joseph Rosenberg Fountain
* Kwanusila
* Large Interior Form, 1953–54
* LGBT veterans monument
* Light of Truth Ida B. Wells National Monument
* Lions
* Looking Into My Dreams, Awilda
* Magdalene
* Man Enters the Cosmos
* Man with Fish
* Miró's Chicago
* Monument with Standing Beast
* Moose (W-02-03)
* Mural of Robin Williams
* Nuclear Energy
* Olmec Head, Number 8
* San Marco II
* Siblings
* A Signal of Peace
* Spiral Galaxy
* Spirit of Music
* Statue of The Republic
* Untitled (Rückriem)
* Untitled (Wool)
* Victory Monument
* We Will

| Portrait
sculptures|

* John Peter Altgeld
* Jack Brickhouse
* Christopher Columbus†
* Nicolaus Copernicus
* Leif Erikson
* Benjamin Franklin
* Ulysses S. Grant
* Nathan Hale
* Alexander Hamilton
* Karel Havlíček
* Heald Square Monument
* Alexander von Humboldt
* Michael Jordan
* Benito Juárez
* Tadeusz Kościuszko
* Irv Kupcinet
* Robert Cavelier de La Salle
* Abraham Lincoln
* The Chicago Lincoln
* The Head of State
* The Man
* John Logan
* William McKinley
* Richard J. Oglesby
* Ryne Sandberg
* Jean Baptiste Point du Sable
* Friedrich Schiller
* William Shakespeare
* Philip Sheridan
* Georg Solti
* Emanuel Swedenborg

|

Related|

* Art Institute of Chicago Building
* Boeing Galleries
* Cool Globes: Hot Ideas for a Cooler Planet
* Gold Star Families Memorial and Park
* Graffiti in Chicago

Key: † No longer extant or on public display
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template