A recent short Chicago Tribune article on devastating wildfires noted the multiple Midwest fires that occurred on the same 1871 day as the Great Chicago Fire. Herein is a discussion of the fires that day and another 10 years later that was enormously destructive. The Great Chicago Fire of October Continue Reading
Ivan Meštrović and the Ox and Buffalo That Never Happened
If you’ve been paying attention since 1928, you might have noticed the two large equestrian statues on opposite sides of the Congress Parkway, just east of Michigan Avenue. They are The Bowman and The Spearman, sculpted and cast by Croatian artist Ivan Meštrović. The stories of how they came to Continue Reading
Chicago’s Lost, Altered and Disfigured Public Art, #1
Chicago has an astonishing collection of public art, numbering in the thousands. Stories about our public art objects abound. About some objects and artists little is known. For yet others, the prevailing stories are simply wrong. When we start telling the stories of our public art, the conversation inevitably turns Continue Reading
The Day My Great Uncles Died
This blog entry has received minor edits since its first publication. On one day in the summer of 1873, two of my great uncles died in Holyoke, Massachusetts. John Knightley, age 8 ½, and his brother Patrick, age 10 months, died of whooping cough on July 15. John had been Continue Reading
Public Art – Chicago’s Hidden Treasure
This is an edited version of a “Maybe We’ll Talk About Public Art Too” podcast. Hello, everyone. My name is Ed McDevitt. This blog episode is called “Public Art – Chicago’s Hidden Treasure.” My original intent was to devote an entire blog and podcast series to Chicago’s collection of public Continue Reading
Art Can Save Us!
You just can’t stand it. An unprincipled boor is at the helm, spouting hate and blaming others for reporting it. Worse, people you know and usually respect defend him and declare false equivalence with claims of terrible things “your side” has said. Every day you are bogged down in the Continue Reading