Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Monument

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Monument, 1913

Herman Hahn

Lincoln Park

North Sheridan Road at West Diversey Parkway

In the late 1800s, a committee of Chicago’s German-Americans decided to raise funds and pay homage to famous German writer and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). The original intent was to erect a monument in Lincoln Park, opposite his friend and famous compatriot, Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller. Munich professor and sculptor Herman Hahn (1868-1944) won a competition where several models were submitted to the Art Institute of Chicago by nine different sculptors. Dedication of the monument was greatly celebrated and attended by dignitaries, including then-mayor Carter H. Harrison on June 13, 1914, a month before the outbreak of World War I. By January 1919, dislike for Germans spurred a Chicago debate to rename nearby Goethe Street to Boxwood Place instead. (The change, however, did not occur.)

Per the request from the monument committee to create a work that was not strictly a figurative portrait, Hahn created a sculpture that embodied the “spirit of Goethe.” This 25-foot figure is reminiscent of a Greek god, possibly based on Zeus. He holds an eagle on his knee, symbolizing Goethe’s “Olympian” achievements. To the right of the statue is a low wall with a bas-relief portrait of Goethe and a quotation (in German and English) from his famous tragic play, Faust. The sculpture is bronze with a rich brown patina; it has been repaired and conserved several times over the years. In 1951, the statue suffered extensive damage after a lightening strike to the left foot. The Chicago Park District had the foot and ankle recast in one piece and reattached.

Emanuel Swedenborg Memorial

Emanuel Swedenborg Memorial, 1924

Adolff Johnson

Lincoln Park

East of North Lake Shore Drive and south of Diversey Harbor

            Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) was a Swedish natural philosopher and visionary. Author of both geological and cosmological works, he combined rationalist and empiricist legacies into a natural philosophy that proposed a harmony of the mechanistic universe with Biblical revelation. Not long after his death, followers formed the New Jerusalem Church in London. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Daniel Burnham also were influenced by Swedenborgianism.

            In 1924, Mr. and Mrs. L. Bracket Bishop commissioned a reproduction of a bust of Swedenborg created by Adolff Johnson, a Swedish artist who had crafted his depiction after examining models of the philosopher’s skull. The bronze image was dedicated on July 24, 1924 in an elaborate ceremony that included the reading of a letter from President Calvin Coolidge, speeches by visiting Swedish dignitaries and the recitation of an Edwin Markham poem called “Swedenborg” by Mr. Bishop.

            Unfortunately, the bronze bust was stolen in 1976 and a masonry pyramid was placed upon the original granite pedestal as a replacement.  In 2008, after stories about the missing bust had been circulated among Swedenborg supporters, the New Church Society in Stockholm found the plaster model used by Johnson for the original plaster cast. In 2009, however, an automobile plowed into the pedestal, causing extensive damage. The story ends well, nonetheless, as a new bronze was created by Swedish artist Magnus Persson from the plaster cast and was shipped to Chicago in February 2012. The new bronze portrait of Swedenborg was placed on the repaired pedestal in April of 2012. 

José Rizal Monument

José Rizal Monument, 1999

Antonio T. Mondejar

4793 N. Marine Drive, in the park west of Lake Shore Drive on axis with West Leland Avenue

            In 1994, to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of Philippine Independence, local members of the Order of the Knights of Rizal and Ladies of Rizal began to campaign for a monument in Lincoln Park. Money from Chicagoans of Filipino heritage was donated to create a recast of a monument, also by artist Mondejar, that stands at the Rizal Shrine at Dapitan, in Zamboanga, Mindanao, Philippines. In 1999, a parade was held prior to unveiling this sculpture of Dr. José Rizal (1861-1896), a revolutionary martyr and Philippine hero.  

          Rizal was a doctor, artist, poet, essayist,  novelist and political figure who was a proponent of independence though peaceful institutional reform rather than violence. He was the most prominent advocate for his country’s reform during the Spanish colonial era. He was executed on December 30, 1896, a day that is now celebrated as a national holiday in the Philippines.

Ping Tom Memorial Bust

Ping Tom Memorial Bust, 2005

Liao Huilan

Ping Tom Park

300 West 19^th Street

            Ping Tom (1935-1995), a lifelong resident of the Chinatown neighborhood, was a successful businessman and founding president of the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. Ping Tom also served as an advisor to U.S. Senators, Illinois Governors and Chicago mayors. The Chinese American Development Corporation, an organization he and other business leaders started, commissioned this bust to honor the park’s namesake. In several stages between the late 1990s and 2010, the Chicago Park District worked to transform a former railroad yard on the South Branch of the Chicago River. It was the first public green space developed in Chinatown in decades. The Chinese-American styled park is perhaps best known for hosting the annual Chicago Dragon Boat Race for Literacy. The season finale of the sixth season of CBS-TV reality show The Amazing Race ended in Ping Tom Memorial Park. When contestants hailed cabs to get there, most of the drivers did not know how to find the park which is located blocks away from the well-known Chinatown Square shopping area Ping Tom helped create.

Sun Yat-Sen Portrait Bust and Fountain

Sun Yat-Sen Portrait Bust and Fountain, 1976

Unknown artist

Sun Yat-Sen Park

251 West 24th Place

This Chinese revolutionary, first president and founding father of the Republic of China, is honored in this one-third-acre park in Chinatown. Before being elected president in 1911, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925) visited Chicago on three occasions as well as numerous other U.S. cities seeking support and funds to help overthrow the Qing Dynasty.

For decades, the Chinatown neighborhood lacked open spaces. Thus, when the city acquired a strip of land adjacent to the Stevenson Expressway in the 1970s, the Bureau of Architecture created a plan for a park. This bronze bust of Sun Yat-Sen sits atop a marble pedestal inscribed with quotations by Confucius in Chinese and English translations by G.H. Wang, a long-time leader in Chinatown. In 2000, the monument’s rectangular pool was fully restored by the Public Building Commission as part of a citywide fountains initiative.