The Bowman and The Spearman

The Bowman and The Spearman (also known collectively as Equestrian Indians, or simply Indians), are two bronze equestrian sculptures standing as gatekeepers in Congress Plaza, at the intersection of Congress Parkway and Michigan Avenue in Chicago's Grant Park, in the U.S. state of Illinois. The sculptures were made in Zagreb by Croatian sculptor Ivan Meštrović and installed at the entrance of the parkway in 1928. Funding was provided by the Benjamin Ferguson Fund.

Each statue stands seventeen feet high and rests atop an eighteen-foot granite pedestal. When the area was first designed, the statues were intended to guard a grand staircase into the park. However, this staircase was removed when Congress Parkway was extended in the 1940s. Research in 2006 suggested that the lettering on the pedestals designed by architects Holabird & Roche was executed by sculptor Rene Paul Chambellan.

The idea of placing large sculptures at the park entrance originated from famed urban planner Daniel Burnham's 1909 Plan of Chicago. Burnham, a man of vision and charisma, was a strong influence on how the lakefront appears today. He imagined a vast parkland stretching from Michigan Avenue to the lakeshore filled with beautiful gardens, walkways, and public works of art. Burnham himself, however, planned for the two statues to be of “one Indian and one ‘Buffalo Bill like’ depiction of the conquering white pioneers” to symbolize both America’s Indian heritage and its struggle for expansion.

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