is a 12.2 meter (40 foot) tall
totem pole
Totem poles () are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large t ...
carved from
red cedar. It stands in
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...
at Addison Street just east of
Lake Shore Drive
Lake Shore Drive (officially Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable Lake Shore Drive; also known as DuSable Lake Shore Drive, the Outer Drive, the Drive, LSD or DLSD) is a semi-limited access Limited-access highway, expressway that runs alongside the sh ...
in the
Lake View neighborhood of
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
. The colorfully painted totems include a grimacing
sea monster
Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and are often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are of ...
at the bottom, a man riding a
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...
above it, and the
Thunderbird on top.
History
Its sculptor was
Tony Hunt, the chief of the
Kwagu'ł tribe in
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
, as a 1986 replacement for the totem pole that stood at the site since 1929. That pole was carved in 1893 for the
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World's Fair, was a world's fair held in Chicago from May 5 to October 31, 1893, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The ...
in Chicago by
George Hunt (
Tlingit
The Tlingit or Lingít ( ) are Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. , they constitute two of the 231 federally recognized List of Alaska Native tribal entities, Tribes of Alaska. Most Tlingit are Alaska Natives; ...
), an ethnologist from Alaska who assisted Franz Boas at the fair and served also as a linguist and interpreter. He was Tony Hunt's direct ancestor.
The first Hunt totem pole was purchased after the fair by
cheese
Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...
baron
Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often Hereditary title, hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than ...
James L. Kraft
James Lewis Kraft (; December 11, 1874 – February 16, 1953) was a Canadian-American entrepreneur and inventor and the founder of Kraft Foods Inc. Kraft immigrated to the United States from Canada in 1902. He developed a patented pasteurization ...
, the founder of
Kraft Foods
Kraft Foods Group, Inc. was an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate (company), conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. on October 1, 2012, and was headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz on July ...
and later donated to the city of Chicago. It was placed in the park in 1929. It suffered from poor maintenance, weathering and vandalism over the years, and was sent to the
Museum of Anthropology
This is a list of museums with major collections in ethnography and anthropology. It is sorted by descending number of objects listed.
# Canadian Museum of History, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
#: 3.75 million artifacts
# Musée du quai Branly, Pa ...
at the
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...
in 1985 for study and conservation.
See also
*
List of public art in Chicago
The city of Chicago, Illinois, is home to notable works of public art on permanent display in an outdoor public space.
References
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=134950
External links
*
{{Public art in th ...
Notes
{{Ethnicity in Chicago
1986 sculptures
History of Chicago
Kwakwaka'wakw mythology
Northwest Coast art
Outdoor sculptures in Chicago
Totem poles in the United States
Wooden sculptures in Illinois