Eternal Silence

Dexter Graves Monument
According to folklore looking into the eyes of the statue will give the viewer a vision of their own death.
Eternal Silence is located in Chicago metropolitan area
Eternal Silence
Eternal Silence is located in Illinois
Eternal Silence
Eternal Silence is located in the United States
Eternal Silence
LocationUptown, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, United States
Built1909
Built byJules Bercham
SculptorLorado Taft
Architectural styleArt Nouveau
Part ofGraceland Cemetery (ID00001628)
Added to NRHPJanuary 18, 2001

Eternal Silence is a monument in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery. It is also known as the Dexter Graves Monument or the Statue of Death.[1] The statue is a bronze sculpture set on and backdropped by black granite. It was created by American sculptor Lorado Taft in 1909.

History

Hooded bronze figure

Eternal Silence is a monument in Graceland Cemetery to Dexter Graves. Graves led a group of thirteen families who moved to Chicago from Ohio in 1831.[2] He died in 1844, and the monument was created by sculptor Lorado Taft in 1909. Taft's son, Henry Graves, asked him to create it.[3] In Ada Bartlett Taft's 1946 Lorado Taft; Sculptor and Citizen, it was listed as one of his most important works.[4] Images of Eternal Silence have been used in other artworks, including works by Claes Oldenburg.[4] One folktale claims that if someone looks into the eyes of Eternal Silence's hooded figure, the viewer would be shown his or her own death.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bielski, Ursula. Creepy Chicago: A Ghosthunter's Tale of the City's Scariest Sites, (Google Books link), Lake Claremont Press, 2003, p. 93, (ISBN 1893121151).
  2. ↑ Lanctot. Barbara, ‘’A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery: A Chicago Architecture Foundation Walking Tour’’, A Chicago Architecture Foundation Walking Tour, Chicago, IL, 1992 P. 6
  3. ↑ Kiefer, et al., pp. 68–69.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Kiefer, et al., pp. 146–47.

References