Eternal Silence: Dexter Graves Monument - Chicago, IL
Posted by: Metro2
N 41° 57.328 W 087° 39.572
16T E 445340 N 4645042
This sculpture by Lorado Zadoc Taft is part of a grave marker in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery.
Waymark Code: WM14Z7R
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 09/16/2021
Views: 0
Wikipedia (
visit link) informs us:
"The monument commemorates Dexter Graves, who in 1831 led a group of thirteen families from Ohio to settle in Chicago. Graves died in 1844, 75 years before the statue's creation and 16 years before Graceland Cemetery was founded. His body was presumably relocated from its original resting place at the old City Cemetery (the present site of Lincoln Park). The will of Graves' son Henry, who died in 1907, provided $250,000 in funds for the monument and another $40,000 intended to commemorate Henry's favorite race horse, Ike Cook. The Cook monument was to stand alongside a drinking fountain for horses in Washington Park. The horse monument never materialized, despite the construction of a model; instead, in 1920, another Taft piece, Fountain of Time, was built in its place and features a hooded figure similar to the one in Eternal Silence.
Ada Bartlett Taft's 1946 book Lorado Taft; Sculptor and Citizen lists Eternal Silence as one of the artist's most important works. Images of Eternal Silence have been used in other artworks, including those by Claes Oldenburg. One folktale claims that looking into the eyes of the statue's hooded figure causes the viewer to see a vision of his or her own death."