George Washington Memorial - Chicago, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 48.153 W 087° 36.985
16T E 448792 N 4628037
Equestrian statue of Washington, with sword upraised, located near the northwest corner of Washington Park on Chicago's south side.
Waymark Code: WM80P4
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 01/04/2010
Views: 4
From the Smithsonian Arts Inventory site:
Depicts "Washington as he took command of the American Revolutionary War forces at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1775. He sits straight upon his horse and holds his sword straight up in the air with his proper right hand. Sculpture rests on a rectangular base with a bench around its perimeter and two low steps to the ground.
Edward Potter created the horse and Daniel Chester French created the figure of Washington. French modeled Washington's head after a bust done from life by Jean Antoine Houdon. The original of this statue is in Paris at the place d'Ilena, near the Trocadero and was dedicated on July 4, 1900 during the Paris Exposition."
According to the Chicago Tribune there was no formal unveiling at the request of the donors, including Clarence Buckingham (of Chicago's Buckingham Fountain fame.)
Daniel Chester French is also noteworthy as the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
See the following for postcard images of the statue in its original location: (
visit link)
The statue was originally located in the center of Grand Blvd., now called MLK Dr., but moved to its current location when the street was widened to 4 lanes to accommodate increasing auto traffic.
It is a beautiful statue, but probably has much less notoriety than is due because it sits in what would now be considered an out-of-the-way and less affluent part of town.