A MEMORIAL TO RENE ROBERT CAVALIER SIEUR DE LA SALLE and HENRI DE TONTI

PLACED BY THE COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA.

The LaSalle Memorial on the west side of the Michigan Avenue Bridge is every bit as good as the Marquette Memorial on the East. (See Previous Post)  The cast of characters, again, is protrayed to the last detail .......

....right down to the dog, the earrings, and Tonti's prosthetic hand, shown here adjacent to LaSalle's.

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A MEMORIAL TO JACQUES MARQUETTE AND LOUIS JOLLIET

Placed by the COLONIAL DAMES OF AMERICA.  Artist Unknown.

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The Michigan Avenue Bridge opened to traffic some ninety years ago in May of 1920. Ornamental sculpture and memorial plaques followed to commemorate the local legends of the River and the City. In 1925 the Colonial Dames of America and the Chicago Historical Society placed a Memorial to Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette on the east side of the bridge. A Memorial to Rene Robert Cavalier Sieur de LaSalle and Henri de Tonti was placed on the West. All of these explorers are reputed to have "slept here." Link to PUBLIC ART IN CHICAGO for very good descriptions of the Bridge (link HERE) and these Memorials in General (link Here).

Neither of these Placques are credited to an Artist. And both go largely unnoticed by the thousands of pedestrians that pass them each day. (And no wonder. They are mounted below waist level. There is no opportunity to step back for a better look. And they are dark.) Still, their quality is remarkably good and very much worth a second look. Today's detail photographs show the characters of the Jolliet and Marquette bronze relief

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This is quite a cast of characters.  Considered.  Well-rendered. 

The portrait directly above is (I'm guessing) Louis Jolliet. And I have to wonder what brought on that little smile. And what that unknown artist was thinking.  Just before this placque was cast.  In the spring of 1925.

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IRENE PEASE MANTONYA. A Dedication

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The Michigan Avenue Bridge is almost covered with plaques, memorials and sculpture.  And there are few more prominent places in Chicago. But time (and not much of it) makes a mystery of what, just a generation ago, was important common knowledge.  And so this post today features some of what I don't know. 

Financial Details of the Benjamin Franklin Ferguson Monument Fund. 

The Sculptor who interpreteted and embellished this seal of the City of Chicago. 

And Irene Pease Mantonya, first woman appointed to the Board of Local Improvements -- though her accomplishments, on this damp Saturday morning -- are quite lost in the fog. 

This is a dedication.  Of sorts.

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CHICAGO SCULPTURE. New Galleries at CHICAGO IMAGES in the Loop.

New sculpture photo galleries are now available at CHICAGO IMAGES IN THE LOOP.  Link HERE to view.

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JAMES EARLE FRASER. The Pioneers ------ Left Face.

James Earle Fraser's 1928 Sculpture "The Pioneers" is on the north face of the northwest bridge tower of the Michigan Avenue Bridge.  "The Pioneers" is oriented to Michigan Avenue (Left Face) and with Fraser's right-facing "Discovers" frame the BoulMich. Even with  details of the work erased by weather and pollution the power of this work is clear.

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Chicago knows Fraser for his work on the Bridge. But his greater fame is for the design of the Indian Head Nickel.
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That Indian Head also shows up on West Lake Street  (at Wells) on Thielbar and Fugard's 1930 Trustees Service System Building. (Don't miss Gwen Lux' "Diana" and "Apollo if you stop by for a look.)

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