A. Montgomery Ward Bust


A. Montgomery Ward Bust, 1972
Milton Horn
Grant Park
East of South Michigan Avenue on axis with East 11th Street

            A scaled-down version of a larger work that was added to the Merchandise Mart Hall of Fame in 1972, this bronze bust memorializes the founder of the world’s first mail-order retail business and one of the nation’s leading department store chains. This tribute, however, focuses upon Ward’s twenty-year legal battle to keep Grant Park “open, free and clear.” Despite fierce criticism toward his campaign to prevent the construction of the Field Museum and other buildings, Ward endured the substantial costs resulting from four lawsuits in the State Supreme Court and succeeded in protecting Chicago’s “front yard” from commercial development. Originally installed in Grant Park in 1993, the statue was removed during the construction of Millennium Park and rededicated in its current location in 2005.  

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