Context

This monument celebrating the 100th anniversary of the State of Illinois was designed by Henry Bacon, the architect who collaborated with Daniel Chester French on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and executed by Evelyn Beatrice Longman, one of the most successful and prolific sculptors of her time. Longman studied with Chicago sculptor Lorado Taft and worked as an assistant in the studios of Herman Atkins McNeil and Daniel Chester French. At the foot of the 50-foot Doric column, topped with a rather ungainly eagle, is a circular base with a procession of allegorical personifications of labor, industry, and agriculture. Included are figures of American Indians as well as explorers.