''Kwanusila'' is a 12.2 meter (40 foot) tall

totem pole Totem poles ( hai, gyáaʼaang) are monumental carvings found in western Canada and the northwestern United States. They are a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually ...

carved from red cedar. It stands in Lincoln Park at Addison Street just east of Lake Shore Drive in the Lake View neighborhood of

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. The colorfully painted totems include a grimacing

sea monster Sea monsters are beings from folklore believed to dwell in the sea and often imagined to be of immense size. Marine monsters can take many forms, including sea dragons, sea serpents, or tentacled beasts. They can be slimy and scaly and are of ...

at the bottom, a man riding a

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

above it, and Kwanusila the

Thunderbird Thunderbird, thunder bird or thunderbirds may refer to: * Thunderbird (mythology), a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture * Ford Thunderbird, a car Birds * Dromornithidae, extinct flightless birds ...

on top.

History

Its sculptor was Tony Hunt, the chief of the Kwagu'ł tribe in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, as a 1986 replacement for the totem pole that stood at the site since 1929. That pole was carved in 1893 for the

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

in Chicago by George Hunt (

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

), an ethnologist from Alaska who assisted Franz Boas at the fair and served also as a linguist and interpreter. He was Tony Hunt's direct ancestor. The first Hunt totem pole was purchased after the fair by cheese baron James L. Kraft, the founder of

Kraft Foods The second incarnation of Kraft Foods is an American food manufacturing and processing conglomerate, split from Kraft Foods Inc. in 2012 and headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. It became part of Kraft Heinz in 2015. A merger with Heinz, arran ...

and later donated to the city of Chicago. It was placed in the park in 1929. It suffered from poor maintenance, weathering and vandalism over the years, and was sent to the Museum of Anthropology at the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks among the top thre ...

in 1985 for study and conservation.

Notes

{{Ethnicity in Chicago Kwakwaka'wakw mythology Outdoor sculptures in Chicago History of Chicago Northwest Coast art Wooden sculptures in Illinois 1986 sculptures Totem poles in the United States

History

See also

Notes