Eternal Silence

Eternal Silence is a monument in Chicago's Graceland Cemetery. It is also known as the Dexter Graves Monument or the Statue of Death.Bielski, Ursula. Creepy Chicago: A Ghosthunter's Tale of the City's Scariest Sites, (Google Books link), Lake Claremont Press, 2003, p. 93, (). The statue is a bronze sculpture set on and backdropped by black granite. It was created by American sculptor Lorado Taft in 1909.

 History 
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.Lanctot. Barbara, ‘’A Walk Through Graceland Cemetery: A Chicago Architecture Foundation Walking Tour’’, A Chicago Architecture Foundation Walking Tour, Chicago, IL, 1992 P. 6 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.Kiefer, et al., pp. 68–69. In Ada Bartlett Taft's 1946 Lorado Taft; Sculptor and Citizen, it was listed as one of his most important works.Kiefer, et al., pp. 146–47. Images of Eternal Silence have been used in other artworks, including works by Claes Oldenburg. One folktale claims that if someone looks into the eyes of Eternal Silences hooded figure, the viewer would be shown his or her own death.

Notes

References
Kiefer, Charles D., Achilles, Rolf, and Vogel, Neil A. "Graceland Cemetery" (pdf), National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, HAARGIS Database, Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, June 18, 2000, accessed October 8, 2011.

Category:Chicago
Category:Burials
Category:Monuments and memorials in the United States
Category:1909 establishments in the United States
Category:1900s establishments in Illinois