19 May to hell and back: photodocumentation of the 1889 haymarket riot police monument
recent photographic survey of the haymarket police monument, a nine-foot bronze statue of a 19th-century chicago police officer, now standing outside the chicago police department headquarters at 3510 s. michigan avenue.
unveiled in haymarket square on may 30, 1889, it was the first monument in the united states dedicated to police officers and is often described as the most bombed and vandalized monument in chicago history.
commissioned by the union league club of chicago to honor the seven officers killed in the haymarket affair on may 4, 1886, the statue was sculpted by johannes gelert. it depicts captain william ward raising his right arm to call for peace and was cast by the american bronze company.
seen by many labor activists as a symbol of police brutality and anti-union sentiment, the monument was repeatedly targeted and relocated seven times. in 1927, a streetcar driver deliberately crashed into the statue, saying he was “sick of seeing that policeman with his arm raised.”
in 1969 and 1970, the weather underground destroyed it with dynamite in two consecutive years. after the second bombing, mayor richard j. daley placed the statue under round-the-clock guard, then moved it out of public view—first to the police headquarters lobby and later to the secure courtyard of the chicago police academy.
in june 2007, the restored statue was installed outside the current headquarters on michigan avenue on a prominent pyramid-shaped pedestal designed by artist mike baur.
