Statue of The Republic, Chicago

The Statue of The Republic is a 24-foot-high gilded bronze sculpture in Jackson Park, Chicago, Illinois by Daniel Chester French. The colossal original statue, a centerpiece of the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, was destroyed by fire. The present statue is a smaller-scale replica, sculpted by the same artist, which was erected in 1918 in commemoration of both the 25th anniversary of the Exposition and the Illinois' statehood centennial. The statue is now located on the south end of the park at the intersection of East Hayes and South Richards Drive, adjacent the golf course and approximately where the exposition's Administration Building and Electricity Building once stood. The statue was funded by the Benjamin Ferguson Fund, which commissioned French to cast this recreation of the original 65-foot-tall statue that stood on the grounds of the Exposition of 1893. Edith Minturn Stokes served as French's model for the original statue. Henry Bacon, the architect of the Lincoln Memorial, designed the festooned pedestal for the replica statue. ()