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Christopher Columbus by Kretschmar

Statue (no longer existing)

Description

Bronze statue of Columbus with right hand held to chest, left hand extended at his side and legs astride. It is made for the 1893 Columbian Exposition Worldâ€™s Fair.

Annotation

This statue is no longer existing. The statue was built and displayed on the lakefront of Chicago (not far from where the Grant Park statue is now) in 1893. Immediately, the reaction of the public was negative. There are numerous articles in the Chicago Tribune (local newspaper) archives panning the statue. It was removed to storage June 1897. In September, 1902, it was proposed to recycle the statue and use the metal for a pending statue to honor our President McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901. That, in fact, was done! So if you want to see the "Columbus" statue today, you have to go see the McKinley statue.

The photo shows the statue of Christopher Columbus lying on its back in a crate in front of a building c. 1903. I turned the photo a quart,

Sculptor

Howard Kretschmar (1845-1933), sculptor.

Sources & Information

Tributes to Christopher Columbus in the United States.
J.M. Dickey, Christopher Columbus and his Monument Columbia (1892), pp. 185-187.
Photo: Library of Congress, American Memory
Information from Alan Gornik, Western Springs, IL.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, SIRIS (Smithsonian Institution Research Information system).

Exact Location Unknown

Item Code: usil06; Added: 27 January 2004 / Updated: 25 September 2010

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