The Leif Erikson statue is a monumental statue honoring

Leif Erikson Leif Erikson, also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norsemen, Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to set foot on continental Americas, America, approximately half a millennium before Christopher Columbus. According ...

Chicago 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 ...

, Illinois, United States. Located in the city's Humboldt Park, the statue was designed by

Sigvald Asbjørnsen Sigvald Asbjørnsen (October 19, 1867 – September 8, 1954) was a Norwegian-born American sculptor. Background Sigvald Asbjørnsen was born in Oslo, Christiania (now Oslo), Norway on October 19, 1867. He studied art with Mathias Skeibrok (18 ...

and erected in 1901.

History

was a Norse explorer who is credited as being one of the first known Europeans to have set foot in continental North America. In the late 1800s, following the discovery of historical evidence supporting his explorations and further

Norse colonization of North America The exploration of North America by Norsemen began in the late 10th century. Voyages from Iceland reached Greenland and founded colonies along its western coast. Norse settlements on Greenland lasted almost 500 years, and the population peaked a ...

, various monuments and memorials to Erikson began to be erected across the United States, mainly by

Scandinavian American Nordic and Scandinavian Americans are Americans of Scandinavian and/or Nordic ancestry, including Danish Americans (estimate: 1,453,897), Faroese Americans, Finnish Americans (estimate: 653,222), Greenlandic Americans, Icelandic Americans ( ...

and

Norwegian American Norwegian Americans () are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 milli ...

communities. This was the case for the Norwegian community in Chicago's Northwest Side in the late 1800s. Prior to the city's

Columbus Day Columbus Day is a national holiday in many countries of the Americas and elsewhere, and a federal holiday in the United States, which officially celebrates the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas. He went ashore at ...

celebrations in October 1892, the Norwegian community hosted a celebration in honor of Leif Erikson's discovery of North America. Writing in the

Norwegian language Norwegian ( ) is a North Germanic language from the Indo-European language family spoken mainly in Norway, where it is an official language. Along with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a dialect continuum of more or less mutually intelli ...

newspaper ''

Skandinaven ''Skandinaven'' was a Norwegian language newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois from 1866 until 1941. Background ''Skandinaven'' was established by three Norwegian immigrants; John Anderson, Knud Langeland (1813–88), and Iver Lawson ( ...

'', Nicolai A. Grevstad said that in the lead up to 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 ...

, held in the city in 1893, a committee was formed for the purpose of creating a statue honoring Erikson. Plans had been made for the statue's unveiling to coincide with the arrival of a replica

Viking ship Viking ships were marine vessels of unique structure, used in Scandinavia throughout the Middle Ages. The boat-types were quite varied, depending on what the ship was intended for, but they were generally characterized as being slender and flexi ...

from

Bergen Bergen (, ) is a city and municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland county on the Western Norway, west coast of Norway. Bergen is the list of towns and cities in Norway, second-largest city in Norway after the capital Oslo. By May 20 ...

, but ultimately, construction of the sculpture would be delayed. The statue, designed by Norwegian American sculptor

, was officially dedicated on October 12, 1901, in a celebration attended by many in the city's Norwegian community. The statue, created at a cost of $10,000, was erected in Humboldt Park.

Design

The

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

statue, depicting Erikson with a

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

in his left hand, is tall and rests on a large

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

. On the boulder is inscribed "Leif Erikson Discoverer of America."

References

External links

* {{coord, 41.90673, -87.70157, format=dms, type:landmark_region:US-IL, display=title 1901 establishments in Illinois 1901 sculptures Bronze sculptures in Illinois Monuments and memorials in Chicago Outdoor sculptures in Chicago Sculptures of men in Illinois Statues in Chicago

History

Design

See also

References

External links