1926: Augustus Saint-Gaudens @ Grant Park

Augustus Saint-Gaudens
"The Head of State"
Abraham Lincoln Memorial
1904, 1906, 1926
Bronze, cast, on a stone base
Grant Park
Jackson Boulevard and Columbus Boulevard
Chicago, IL

John Chippewa Crerar (1827-1889), eponymous benefactor of the University of Chicago library, commissioned the Abraham Lincoln memorial from Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848-1907) on October 20, 1897, some thirty-two years after Lincoln's assassination.  Originally cast in 1904, but destroyed in a studio fire, Saint-Gaudens's memorial, "The Head of State," was rebuilt in 1906, with support from Saint-Gaudens' assistants Henry Hering and Elsie Ward, and subsequently cast at the Roman Bronze Foundry, New York, New York.  After a twenty-year period during which it occupied multiple sites outside of Chicago, the statue was coupled with a stone base, designed by Stanford and Laurence White, and presented to the public in Grant Park on May 31, 1926, nearly twenty-nine years after it was commissioned, and well after the death of both Crerar and also Saint-Gaudens himself.

Read more:

Dryfhout, John. "The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens". NH: University Press of New England, 1982. Print.

National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior (PDF):
http://www.nps.gov/saga/historyculture/upload/Lincoln%20project%20G.pdf

Above:
Images (1-2) November 11, 2006;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

1924: Albin Polasek @ Grant Park

Albin Polasek
"The Spirit of Music"
Theodore Thomas Memorial
1924
Bronze (cast) on a stone base
Grant Park
Michigan Avenue at Balbo Avenue, the northeast corner
Chicago, IL

Standing roughly 5 meters tall, "The Spirit of Music," memorializing Theodore Thomas, founder of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, was commissioned by trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1918.  Albin Polasek (1879-1965), himself employed by the Institute, completed the artwork which, after being placed on Michigan Avenue, opposite Orchestra Hall, was dedicated in 1924.  Subsequent to its dedication, "The Spirit of Music" (contrary to the intent of its creators) was removed to various other locations, during which travels the bronze figure was separated from the granite panels which composed its base.  The memorial's stonework was eventually dumped in Lake Michigan (presumably by employees of the Chicago Park District) where it sat till being discovered 1983.  After an effort at restoration of both the granite and also bronze components, the piece was reinstalled in Grant Park in 1991, near, but not at, its original site.

Read more:

"The Art Of Music: A Neglected CSO Memorial May Get A New Home," Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune, July 28, 1991:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-07-28/entertainment/9103230539_1_albin-polasek-art-institute-art-deco

"Hearts of Stone," Jeff Huebner, Reader, July 10, 1997:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/hearts-of-stone/Content?oid=893851

Above:
Image (1) November 11, 2006;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

1981: Joan Miro @ Brunswick Plaza

Joan Miro
"Chicago"
1981
Concrete over a metallic armature, ceramic tile, and bronze, on a travertine stone base
Brunswick Plaza
Washington Boulevard, between Clark Street and Dearborn Street
Chicago, IL

Situated in an architectural nook formed by the Cook County Administration Building, the Chicago Temple Building, and Harold Washington College, "Chicago," by Joan Miro (1893-1983), is often overlooked in favor of Picasso's sculpture in Daley Plaza on the opposite side of the street.  Standing roughly 12 meters tall, Miro's piece took some 18 years to realize after its proposal, largely as a result of the complex arrangement of its funding.  The Art Institute of Chicago maintains Miro's plaster "Chicago" maquette from 1963: http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/100666

Above:
Image (1) September 20, 2006;
Image (2) September 20, 2006;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.

1967: Henry Moore @ University of Chicago

Henry Moore
"Nuclear Energy"
1967, modeled on a piece begun in 1964
Bronze (cast) on stone base
University of Chicago
Ellis Avenue near 57th Street
Chicago, IL

Standing roughly 4 meters tall, the 1967 bronze sculpture "Nuclear Energy," conceived by British artist Henry Moore (1898–1986), commemorates the occasion of the first controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction, which occurred on December 2, 1942. At the site, formerly containing the University of Chicago's Stagg Field, an experimental atomic pile, designed by Enrico Fermi, was hidden below ground during the 1940s. The location was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, and declared a Chicago Landmark in 1971. The sculpture is today accessible via the public sidewalk on the east side of Ellis Avenue near 57th Street, within the University of Chicago campus. A cast from Moore's "Nuclear Energy" series is held in Hiroshima, Japan.

Above:
Image (1) June 13, 2011;
Image (2) June 13, 2011;
Image (3) August 20, 2006;
Copyright Paul E. Germanos.