Grant Park Stadium was renamed Soldier Field at the urging of Chicago’s Gold Star Mothers on November 11, 1925.

Opened on October 9, 1924, Grant Park Stadium was designed by the architecture firm of Holabird & Roche. Neo-classical in style, the design pays homage to the ancient Roman Colosseum, creating a venue that exudes strength, resilience, and a sense of grandeur. The original configuration was shaped like a U, with the structure's opening facing the Field Museum. This allowed for easy access to the field and a direct view of the Field Museum for spectators.

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According to the Chicago History Museum, the stadium was never officially known as Municipal Grant Park Stadium. The name was used in some news articles and promotional materials, but it was never officially adopted by the city or the Chicago Park District (founded on July 1, 1934).

Not originally intended to be a football stadium, the idea was to create a space to host various events, including sports, military drills, concerts, exhibitions, and community gatherings, while also serving as a place of remembrance. The design was inspired by classical architecture, featuring a colonnade facade with Doric columns that encircled the stadium. The seating bowl of the stadium was initially built using a wooden grandstand, which could accommodate around 45,000 spectators.

On November 11, 1925, the stadium was renamed Soldier Field to honor the city's World War I veterans. The name change was officially dedicated on November 27, 1926, during a football game between Army and Navy.

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In 1968, Soldier Field hosted the first Special Olympics. The City of Chicago changed the address of Soldier Field to 1410 Special Olympics Drive on June 24, 2018. This was done to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the Special Olympics and to recognize the stadium's role as the birthplace of the movement.

The stadium became the permanent home of the Chicago Bears of the National Football League (NFL) in 1971.

In 1978, the plank seats were replaced with individual seats. To offer fans a better view, seats were moved closer to the field, increasing the stadium seating capacity to nearly 57,000. 

Throughout the mid-20th century, Soldier Field underwent renovations, including the construction of a grandstand in the open end of the U, the replacement of plank seating with individual seats in 1978, seats were moved closer to the field, a new press box, and the addition of more than 100 skyboxes. This increased spectator capacity to more than 66,000.

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Early  years hosted events included:

• The 1926 Army-Navy Football Game. 
• The second Dempsey-Tunney World Championship boxing match. 
• The University of Notre Dame has played 13 football games at Soldier Field, including. Notre Dame defeated Northwestern 13-6 on November 22. 
• Opening day Century of Progress ceremonies were held in Soldier Field on May 27, 1933. 

Ticket № 3. Opening Day World Fair Ceremonies at Soldier Field.

Major sporting events at Soldier Field include:

• The January 5, 1986, NFL Divisional playoffs and the January 12 Championship games were held at Soldier Field, leading to the Chicago Bears winning Super Bowl XX against New England Patriots, 46 to 10, in the Louisiana Superdome on January 26, 1986.
• Three 1994 FIFA World Cup Games Held at Soldier Field: 
• June 17, 1994: The opening ceremony, emceed by Oprah Winfrey, and the opening game, featuring defending champion Germany.
• June 21, 1994: Germany vs. Spain.
• July 2, 1994: Germany vs. Belgium; Brazil won the 1994 FIFA World Cup.

However, the most controversial chapter in Soldier Field's architectural journey occurred in the early 2000s when the stadium underwent a major renovation. The Chicago Park District, which owns the property, faced substantial criticism when it announced plans to alter the stadium with a design by Benjamin T. Wood and Carlos Zapata of Wood & Zapata in Boston. The stadium grounds were reconfigured by local architecture firm Lohan Associates, led by architect Dirk Lohan, grandson of Mies van der Rohe.

The renovation aimed to modernize Soldier Field while preserving its historic façade. Completed in 2003, the updated Soldier Field retained its classic colonnade while incorporating a bold and contemporary design. Adding a glass and steel structure, known as the "Grand Concourse," brought a jolt of modernity to the stadium, while the two elliptical seating structures on either side of the original colonnades are striking additions to the structure.

While the innovative design allowed for enhanced amenities, increased seating capacity, and improved accessibility for fans, many preservationists, architecture critics and residents were not thrilled about the renovation. The modern additions were seen as incongruous with the stadium's neoclassical origins. "It looks like a spaceship landed." Debates about the design of the stadium continue today.

Despite the controversy, Soldier Field attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators for NFL games, athletic events, concerts and more. As the Chicago Bears look to move their home field to another location, the future of the iconic field by the lake is yet to be determined.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

The Great Kiss-Off at Woodfield Mall, Schaumburg, Illinois. 1974

June 8, 1974, the rock group KISS made an appearance at the Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg, Illinois, to promote the “Great KISS Off” kissing competition.

The contest began June 8 at noon, with 11 couples from across the country competing. These couples had already participated in a preliminary round for radio stations near their homes and were ready to win the big prize. At stake was an eight-day cruise to Acapulco and a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

After more than 114 hours, Woodfield Mall finally had a winning couple. Vinnie Torro and Louise Heath, the kissing couple, successfully locked lips as part of the Great Kiss Off of 1974—and the rock band KISS, for whom the event was named, was happy to play their part.

Each couple was given a five-minute break every hour. They were also incentivized with a big kickoff for the event led by WCFL’s superjock, Larry Lujack. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Automobile Polo was played at Chicago's Comiskey Park on June 5, 6, 7, and 8, 1913.

Chicago Tribune, Monday, July 28, 1902.

The newest twentieth-century game is called automobile polo. The name, however, has already been found too long and has been conveniently abbreviated to "auto polo." An interesting exhibition of auto polo was given last week on the field of the fashionable Dedham Polo Club of Boston. Mr. Joshua Crene Jr., a member of this club and an expert polo player, made a series of polo strokes from his automobile to the amazement of polo enthusiasts. Mr. Crane is a clever all-around athlete and adept at handling an automobile as well as a polo mallet.

The play is executed so quickly that an unpracticed eye has difficulty following it. The nimble little mobile machines used in the game are capable of developing a speed of about forty miles an hour in a few feet and can be brought to a standstill practically within their own lengths.

Auto polo was a dangerous but popular motorsport that originated in the United States in 1911. It was similar to equestrian polo, but instead of horses, players used cars. The sport was played at fairs, exhibitions, and sports venues across the United States and Europe until the late 1920s. Auto polo was dangerous because of the high speeds and the risk of collisions. Players and spectators were often injured or killed, and vehicles were often damaged.

Auto Polo played at Chicago's Comiskey Park on June 5, 6, 7, and 8, 1913.

Almost as soon as automobiles became somewhat practical, people were figuring out dangerous and fun things to do with them.

The earliest automobiles were typically rich folks’ novelties, which may explain why, in 1902, Joshua Crane, Jr., a polo enthusiast active with the Dedham Polo Club of Boston, decided to put on an exhibition polo match wherein Mobile Runabouts replaced horses.

That it might not have been the safest endeavor can be seen from a surviving photograph of the match catching one of the drivers/mallet men doing a header into the ground, about to be run over by his own steed.

Chicago Tribune, Friday, June 5, 1913

Chicago will get its first taste of auto polo on June 5 when a four days series between teams representing Chicago and New York will be started at Comiskey Park. A syndicate of Chicago men is promoting contests. The first game will be played on the afternoon of June 5, followed by another at night, then by others as follows: The afternoon and night of June 6, the night of June 7, and afternoon and night of June 8.

Just exactly how dangerous it was is hard to tell. The risk of injury to both competitors and spectators eventually put an end to the practice in the late 1920s, but a contemporary account says that deaths were rare. It’s clear that some of the danger might have been exaggerated by staged photographs, but broken bones were apparently not uncommon. In some photos, it seems that competitors wore leather football helmets, showing there was at least some concern about safety.

Though Mr. Crane put on the first auto polo match, it was a Topeka, Kansas, Ford dealer who turned it into an organized sport.

Ralph “Pappy” Hankinson saw polo with cars as a way of promoting the sale of the Model T. The first match Hankinson organized took place in an alfalfa field near Wichita on July 20, 1912, with four cars, eight players, and a reported crowd of 5,000 spectators. Each car carried a seat-belted driver and a free-standing mallet man who had to hang on—often unsuccessfully. The ball was the size of a basketball (some accounts say it was, in fact, a basketball), and after learning something about physics and inertia, weights were added to the mallets so they didn’t “backfire” when striking the balls. Stripped-down Model Ts were fitted with crude roll bars to protect the driver and the cars’ radiators. Speeds were not high, never more than 35 mph, but high enough for mayhem.

Auto polo was invented before the radio, let alone television, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that Hankinson’s idea quickly caught on. Under the Auto Polo Association, local leagues were founded across the United States, and a large exhibition of the sport was staged in Washington, D.C.’s League Stadium in November 1912.

Hankinson sent exhibition teams to England, Europe, and even the Philippines to promote the sport. In 1913, auto polo became the first motorsport to be featured at the Canadian National Exhibition. Britain’s The Auto magazine was impressed but described it as a “lunatic game” that they hoped would not catch on in the UK.

By the 1920s, New York City and Chicago were hosting daily auto polo matches, with some of the games played at NYC’s famous Madison Square Garden.

Many car racing fans today disavow their interest in crashes, but that was genuinely part of the appeal of auto polo. By the end of the matches, the cars were either severely damaged or completely demolished. Hankinson’s own accounting of damages to the cars used by his British and American auto polo teams in 1924 lists 1,564 broken wheels (most cars used wooden spoked “artillery” wheels), 538 unusable tires, 66 broken axles, 10 cracked engines and 6 completely destroyed cars.

While injuries to competitors were frequent, and even spectators were not infrequently hurt by balls flying into the stands or runaway cars, it appears that economics, not concerns about safety, put an end to auto polo.

According to the book Bain’s New York: The City in News Pictures 1900-1925, as the 1920s wore on, the cost of fixing and replacing the cars became too costly. By then, organized car racing was well established. If that wasn’t dangerous enough, there were board-track motordromes and walls of death. So as dangerous as auto polo must have been, it might have seemed a bit quaint during the Roaring Twenties.

In any case, auto polo was a real thing—loony but real.

Auto Polo—No car but the Model T Ford of the

early 1900s had the forward and reverse speeds

and brakes applied by foot pedals. The throttle was

operated by hand, and it was the transmission

system that made such maneuvers possible.

The Dedham Polo Club first used Mobile Runabouts for their exhibition games in 1902. 

1902 Stanley Stick-Seat Runabout.

Unlike equestrian polo, which requires large, open fields that can accommodate up to eight horses at a time, auto polo could be played in smaller, covered arenas during wintertime. This factor greatly increased its popularity in the northern United States. The game was typically played on a field or open area that was a least 300 feet long and 120 feet wide, with 15-foot wide goals positioned at each end of the field. The game was played in two halves (chukkers), and each team had two cars and four men in play on the field at a given time.

The first auto polo cars used by the Dedham Polo Club were unmodified, light steam-powered Mobile Runabouts that seated only one person and cost $650 ($22K today). 

As the sport progressed, auto polo cars resembled stripped-down Model T's. Usually, they did not have tops, doors or windshields, with later incarnations sometimes outfitted with primitive rollbars to protect the occupants. Cars typically had a seat-belted driver and a mallet man that held on to the side of the car and would attempt to hit a regulation-sized basketball toward the goal of the opposing team, with the cars reaching a top speed of 40 miles per hour and while making hairpin turns. The mallets were shaped like croquet mallets but had a three-pound head to prevent "backfire" when striking the ball at high speeds.

The Truth About Cars

Edited by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Tiny Tap Bar, 112½ North Clinton Street, Chicago, Illinois. (1953-1985)

George and Bob DeLeonardis owned the Tiny Tap bar for years. There will be no more lewd laughter in the Tiny Tap, Chicago's smallest bar. on a Wednesday night, they drank all the booze. The next day they dismantled the bar. After 32 years, they've lost their lease. A three-story multi-use building was built in its place. 

The Tiny Tap bar was 10-by-20-foot (200 sq. ft.) a home to millionaires and skid row drinkers across the street from the Chicago & North Western Train Station. 

When the bar was two-deep, it was packed. They closed in April 1985.

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Brothers Anthony and Dominick Adreani own the Tiny Tap (1,000 sq. ft) at 7648 West North Avenue, Elmwood Park, which opened in January 2015. They also own the Berwyn Tap Room, 6330 16th Street, Berwyn.

"Thank you so much for sharing this! I’m married to George’s daughter Terry, and I can attest that George and the Tiny Tap was as colorful as you described!"

—Don Meyer via Facebook. 8/5/2023   

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln, a Concise Overview.

In 1856, Walt Whitman wrote a lengthy description of his ideal president: a "heroic" figure who was cunning and bold in temperament and knowledgeable about the world, a "Lincolnesque figure," according to Whitman biographer Justin Kaplan. He also opined on this hypothetical president's physical attributes: bearded and dressed in "a clean suit of working attire." Whitman explicitly mentions blacksmiths and boatmen as ideal precursor occupations. Two years later, Whitman first said Lincoln by name in writing. That year, he supported Stephen Douglas over Lincoln for election to the United States Senate. Whitman first saw Lincoln as the president-elect traveling through New York City on February 19, 1861. Whitman noticed Lincoln's "striking appearance" and "unpretentious dignity" and trusted his "supernatural tact" and "idiomatic Western genius." Whitman's admiration of Lincoln steadily grew in the following years; in October 1863, Whitman wrote in his diary, "I love the President personally."

President Abraham Lincoln. 1863

Although they never met, Whitman estimated in a letter he saw Lincoln about twenty to thirty times between 1861 and 1865, sometimes at close quarters. Lincoln passed Whitman several times and nodded to him, interactions that Whitman detailed in letters to his mother. Lincoln biographer William Barton writes there was little "evidence of recognition," and Lincoln likely nodded to many passersby as he traveled. Whitman and Lincoln were in the same room twice: at a reception in the White House following Lincoln's first inauguration in 1861 and when Whitman visited John Hay, Lincoln's private secretary, at the White House.

In August 1863, Whitman wrote in The New York Times, "I see the president almost every day." Later that year, Whitman wrote a letter about Lincoln describing the president's face as a "Hoosier Michel Angelo, so awful ugly it becomes beautiful." In the letter, he described Lincoln as captaining the "ship of state."] Whitman considered himself and Lincoln "afloat in the same stream" and "rooted in the same ground." They shared similar views on slavery and the Union—both men opposed allowing slavery to expand across the U.S. but considered preserving the Union more critical. Whitman consistently supported Lincoln's politics, and similarities have been noted in their literary styles and inspirations. Whitman later said, "Lincoln gets almost nearer me than anybody else."

It remains unclear how much Lincoln knew about Whitman, though he knew of him and his admiration for him. There is an account of Lincoln reading Leaves of Grass in his office and another of the president saying, "Well, he looks like a man!" upon seeing Whitman in Washington, D.C., but these accounts may be fictitious. Whitman was present at Lincoln's second inauguration in 1865 and left D.C. shortly after to visit his family.

On April 15, 1865, shortly after the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln was assassinated. Whitman was residing in Brooklyn while on a break from his job at the Department of the Interior when he heard the news. He recalled that although breakfast was served, the family did not eat and "not a word was spoken all day."

Lectures

In 1875, Whitman published Memoranda During the War. The book, a collection of diary entries, includes a telling of Lincoln's assassination from the perspective of someone who was present. The New York Sun published that section in 1876 to a positive reception. Whitman, by then in failing health, presented himself as neglected, unfairly criticized, and deserving of pity in the form of financial aid. Richard Watson Gilder and several of Whitman's other friends soon suggested he give a "Lincoln Lectures" series aimed at raising both funds and Whitman's profile. Whitman adapted his New York Sun article for the lectures.

Whitman gave a series of lectures on Lincoln from 1879 to 1890. They centered on the assassination and covered the years leading up to and during the American Civil War. Whitman occasionally gave poetry readings, such as "O Captain! My Captain!.' The lectures were generally popular and well-received. In 1980, Whitman's biographer Justin Kaplan wrote that Whitman's 1887 lecture in New York City and its after-party marked the closest he came to "social eminence on a large scale.'

In 1885, Whitman contributed an essay about his experiences with Lincoln to a volume compiled by Allen Thorndike Rice. Novelist Bram Stoker gave at least one lecture on Lincoln and discussed the deceased president with Whitman in November 1886. The two met when Stoker wrote a lengthy letter to Whitman in 1872 and were friends afterward. Robert J. Havlik, in the Walt Whitman Quarterly, noted that their "mutual respect for Lincoln" was the foundation of their relationship.

Whitman's Poetry on Abraham Lincoln

Walt Whitman's first poem on Lincoln's assassination was "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day," dated April 19, 1865—the day of Lincoln's funeral in Washington. Near the publication of Drum-Taps, Whitman decided the collection would be incomplete without a poem on Lincoln's death and hastily added "Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day.' He halted further distribution of the work and stopped publication on May 1, primarily to develop his Lincoln poems. He followed that poem with "O Captain! My Captain!" and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.' "My Captain" first appeared in The Saturday Press on November 4, 1865, and was published with "Lilacs" in Sequel to Drum-Taps around the same time. Although Sequel to Drum-Taps had been published in early October, copies were not ready for distribution until December. English professor Amanda Gailey described Whitman's decision to publish "My Captain" in The Saturday Press as a teaser for Sequel.

Walt Whitman

In 1866, Whitman's friend William D. O'Connor published The Good Gray Poet: A Vindication, a short, promotional work for Whitman. O'Connor presented Whitman as Lincoln's "foremost poetic interpreter,' proclaiming "Lilacs" as "the grandest and the only grand funeral music poured around Lincoln's bier.'

Whitman did not compose "This Dust Was Once the Man,' his fourth on Lincoln, until 1871. The four poems were first grouped together in the "President Lincoln's Burial Hymn" cluster of Passage to India (1871). Ten years later, in a later edition of Leaves of Grass, the grouping was named "Memories of President Lincoln.' The poems were not revised substantially following their publication.

Whitman wrote two other poems on Lincoln's assassination that were not included in the cluster. Shortly before Whitman's death, he wrote a final poem with the president as its subject, titled "Abraham Lincoln, Born February 12, 1809," in honor of Lincoln's birthday. It appeared in the New York Herald on February 12, 1888. The poem has only two lines and is not well known.

Whitman's Interpretation of Lincoln

Shortly after Lincoln's assassination, hundreds of poems were composed about his death. Historian Stephen B. Oates wrote that the American public had never mourned the death of a head of state so profoundly. Whitman was ready and willing to write poetry on the topic, seizing the opportunity to present himself as an "interpreter of Lincoln" to increase the readership of Leaves of Grass while honoring a man he admired. In 2004, Pannapacker described poetry as a "mixture of innovation and opportunism." Scholar Daniel Aaron writes that "Whitman placed himself and his work in the reflected limelight" of Lincoln's death.

The work of poets like Whitman and Lowell helped to establish Lincoln as the "first American,' epitomizing the newly reunited America. Whitman portrayed Lincoln using metaphors such as the captain of the ship of state and made his assassination a monumental event. Aaron wrote that Whitman treated Lincoln's death as a moment that could unite the American people. The historian Merrill D. Peterson wrote similarly, noting that Whitman's poetry placed Lincoln's assassination firmly in the American consciousness. Kaplan considers responding to Lincoln's death to have been Whitman's "crowning challenge." However, he believes Whitman's poems, such as "My Captain" and "Lilacs," to be less bold and emotionally direct than his earlier work.

Pannapacker concludes that Whitman reached the "heights of fame" through his poetry on Lincoln. He fashioned Lincoln as the "redeemer of the promise of American democracy." The philosopher Martha C. Nussbaum considers Lincoln to be the only individual subject of love in Whitman's poetry. The Chilean critic Armando Donoso wrote that Lincoln's death allowed Whitman to find significance in his feelings surrounding the Civil War. Several critics consider Whitman's response to Lincoln's death to memorialize all those who had died in the Civil War. For Whitman, Lincoln's death was the culmination of all the tragedies the Civil War had brought, according to scholar Betsy Erlikka.

Critics have noted Whitman's departure from his earlier poetry in his Lincoln poems; for instance, in 1932, Floyd Stovall felt that Whitman's "barbaric yawp" had been "silenced" and replaced by a more sentimental side; he noted an undercurrent of melancholy arising from the subject of death. Ed Folsom argues that, although Whitman may have struggled with his success coming from work uncharacteristic of his other poetry, he decided that acceptance was "preferable to exclusion and rejection"

Walt Whitman's Poems in "Memories of President Lincoln"

HUSH'D BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY. MAY 1865

HUSH'D be the camps to-day,

And soldiers let us drape our war-worn weapons,

And each with musing soul retire to celebrate,

Our dear commander's death.

No more for him life's stormy conflicts,

Nor victory, nor defeat—no more time's dark events,

Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky.

But sing poet in our name,

Sing of the love we bore him—because you, dweller in camps,

know it truly.

As they invault the coffin there,

Sing—as they close the doors of earth upon him—one verse,

For the heavy hearts of soldiers.

O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! NOVEMBER 1865

O CAPTAIN! my captain! our fearful trip is done;

The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought is won;

The port is near, the bells I hear, the people are exulting,

While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!

Leave you not the little spot,

Where on the deck my captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

O captain! my captain! rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;

For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

O captain! dear father!

This arm I push beneath you;

It is some dream that on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

.

My captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;

My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will:

But the ship, the ship is anchor'd safe, its voyage closed and done;

From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won:

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!

But I, with silent tread,

Walk the spot my captain lies,

Fallen cold and dead.

THIS DUST WAS ONCE THE MAN. 1871

THIS dust was once the man,

Gentle, plain, just and resolute, under whose cautious hand,

Against the foulest crime in history known in any land or age,

Was saved the Union of these States.

WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM'D. 1865

1

WHEN lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd,

And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night,

I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring.

Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring,

Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west,

And thought of him I love.

2

powerful western fallen star!

shades of night—O moody, tearful night!

great star disappear'd—O the black murk that hides the star!

cruel hands that hold me powerless—O helpless soul of me!

harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul.

3

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle—and from this bush in the dooryard,

With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break.

4

In the swamp in secluded recesses,

A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song.

Solitary the thrush,

The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements,

Sings by himself a song.

Song of the bleeding throat,

Death's outlet song of life, (for well dear brother I know,

If thou wast not granted to sing thou would'st surely die.)

5

Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities,

Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the violets peep'd 

from the ground, spotting the gray debris,

Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, passing the endless grass,

Passing the yellow-spear'd wheat, every grain from its shroud in the dark-brown fields uprisen,

Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards,

Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave,

Night and day journeys a coffin.

6

Coffin that passes through lanes and streets,

Through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land,

With the pomp of the inloop'd flags with the cities draped in black,

With the show of the States themselves as of crape-veil'd women standing,

With processions long and winding and the flambeaus of the night,

With the countless torches lit, with the silent sea of faces and the unbared heads,

With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre faces,

With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising strong and solemn,

With all the mournful voices of the dirges pour'd around the coffin,

The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs—where amid these you journey,

With the tolling tolling bells' perpetual clang,

Here, coffin that slowly passes,

I give you my sprig of lilac.

7

Nor for you, for one alone,

Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring,

For fresh as the morning, thus would I chant a song for you O

sane and sacred death.

All over bouquets of roses,

O death, I cover you over with roses and early lilies,

But mostly and now the lilac that blooms the first,

Copious I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes,

With loaded arms I come, pouring for you,

For you and the coffins all of you O death.)

8

O western orb sailing the heaven,

Now I know what you must have meant as a month since I walk'd,

As I walk'd in silence the transparent shadowy night,

As I saw you had something to tell as you bent to me night after night,

As you droop'd from the sky low down as if to my side, 

(while the other stars all look'd on,)

As we wander'd together the solemn night, 

(for something I know not what kept me from sleep,)

As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full you were of woe,

As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze in the cool transparent night,

As I watch'd where you pass'd and was lost in the netherward black of the night,

As my soul in its trouble dissatisfied sank, as where you sad orb,

Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone.

9

Sing on there in the swamp,

O singer bashful and tender, I hear your notes, I hear your call,

I hear, I come presently, I understand you,

But a moment I linger, for the lustrous star has detain'd me,

The star my departing comrade holds and detains me.

10

O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved?

And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone?

And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love?

Sea-winds blown from east and west,

Blown from the Eastern sea and blown from the Western sea, till 

there on the prairies meeting,

These and with these and the breath of my chant,

I'll perfume the grave of him I love.

11

O what shall I hang on the chamber walls?

And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls,

To adorn the burial-house of him I love?

Pictures of growing spring and farms and homes,

With the Fourth-month eve at sundown, and the gray smoke lucid and bright,

With floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, indolent, 

sinking sun, burning, expanding the air,

With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, and the pale green leaves of the trees prolific,

In the distance the flowing glaze, the breast of the river, with a wind-dapple here and there,

With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows,

And the city at hand with dwellings so dense, and stacks of chimneys,

And all the scenes of life and the workshops, and the workmen homeward returning.

12

Lo, body and soul—this land,

My own Manhattan with spires, and the sparkling and hurrying

tides, and the ships,

The varied and ample land, the South and the North in the light,

Ohio's shores and flashing Missouri,

And ever the far-spreading prairies cover'd with grass and corn.

Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty,

The violet and purple morn with just-felt breezes,

The gentle soft-born measureless light,

The miracle spreading bathing all, the fulfill'd noon,

The coming eve delicious, the welcome night and the stars,

Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land.

13

Sing on, sing on you gray-brown bird,

Sing from the swamps, the recesses, pour your chant from the bushes,

Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines.

Sing on dearest brother, warble your reedy song,

Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe.

O liquid and free and tender!

O wild and loose to my soul—O wondrous singer!

You only I hear—yet the star holds me, (but will soon depart,)

Yet the lilac with mastering odor holds me.

14

Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth,

In the close of the day with its light and the fields of spring, and

the farmers preparing their crops,

In the large unconscious scenery of my land with its lakes and forests,

In the heavenly aerial beauty, (after the perturb'd winds and the storms,)

Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the

voices of children and women,

The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd,

And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy with labor,

And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with

its meals and minutia of daily usages,

And the streets how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities pent

—lo, then and there,

Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the rest,

Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail,

And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death.

Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me,

And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me,

And I in the middle as with companions, and as holding the hands of companions,

I fled forth to the hiding receiving night that talks not,

Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the dimness,

To the solemn shadowy cedars and ghostly pines so still.

And the singer so shy to the rest receiv'd me,

The gray-brown bird I know receiv'd us comrades three,

And he sang the carol of death, and a verse for him I love.

From deep secluded recesses,

From the fragrant cedars and the ghostly pines so still,

Came the carol of the bird.

And the charm of the carol rapt me,

As I held as if by their hands my comrades in the night,

And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird.

Come lovely and soothing death,

Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving,

In the day, in the night, to all, to each,

Sooner or later delicate death.

Prais'd be the fathomless universe,

For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious,

And for love, sweet love—but praise! praise! praise!

For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death.

Dark mother always gliding near with soft feet,

Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?

Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all,

I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come unfalteringly.

Approach strong deliveress,

When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead,

Lost in the loving floating ocean of thee,

Laved in the flood of thy bliss O death.

From me to thee glad serenades,

Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings for thee,

And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread sky are fitting,

And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night.

The night in silence under many a star,

The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose voice I

know,

And the soul turning to thee O vast and well-veil'd death,

And the body gratefully nestling close to thee.

Over the tree-tops I float thee a song,

Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad fields and the prairies wide,

Over the dense-pack'd cities all and the teeming wharves and ways,

I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee O death.

15

To the tally of my soul,

Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird,

With pure deliberate notes spreading filling the night.

Loud in the pines and cedars dim,

Clear in the freshness moist and the swamp-perfume,

And I with my comrades there in the night.

While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed,

As to long panoramas of visions.

And I saw askant the armies,

I saw as in noiseless dreams hundreds of battle-flags,

Borne through the smoke of the battles and pierc'd with missiles I saw them,

And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody,

And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs, (and all in silence,)

And the staffs all splinter'd and broken.

I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,

And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them,

I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war,

But I saw they were not as was thought,

They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer'd not,

The living remain'd and suffer'd, the mother suffer'd,

And the wife and the child and the musing comrade suffer'd,

And the armies that remain'd suffer'd.

16

Passing the visions, passing the night,

Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades' hands,

Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul,

Victorious song, death's outlet song, yet varying ever-altering song,

As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night,

Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,

Covering the earth and filling the spread of the heaven,

As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,

Passing, I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves,

I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring.

I cease from my song for thee,

From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee,

O comrade lustrous with silver face in the night.

Yet each to keep and all, retrievements out of the night,

The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown bird,

And the tallying chant, the echo arous'd in my soul,

With the lustrous and drooping star with the countenance full of woe,

With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird,

Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, 

for the dead I loved so well,

For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands—and this for his dear sake,

Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul,

There in the fragrant pines and the cedars dusk and dim.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Highland Amusement Park, Freeport, Illinois (1905-1949)

Highland Amusement Park was a popular amusement park in Freeport, Illinois, which opened in 1905. It was located on the banks of the Pecatonica River, just south of downtown Freeport.

The park was initially called Freeport Park but was renamed Highland Park in 1912. 

This photo is a visual aid.

The park was opened in 1907 by John R. Highland, a local businessman. Highland Amusement Park quickly became a popular destination for families from all over the region. The park featured a variety of rides and attractions, including a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, an Allan Herschell carousel, a water slide, and other rides for young children. 

Highland Amusement Park was sold to a new owner, who invested heavily in new rides for young children and attractions in 1929. The park continued to grow in popularity throughout the 1930s and into the early 1940s.

The park's Midway featured a variety of games and food vendors. Some of the games offered included Skee-Ball (popular since the early 1900s), ring toss, and balloon darts, all winning small toys for performance. Some food vendors had a hot dog stand, a popcorn vendor, and a candy shop.

Highland Amusement Park closed in 1949 due to financial problems.

Krape Park, 1122 South Burchard Avenue, Freeport, Illinois, ended up with the Allan Herschell 20-horse carousel, which was completely refurbished and reopened on July 4, 1959, in the park. In 2018, the Carousel was completely disassembled and refurbished again.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Kiddyland Amusement Park, East Dundee, Illinois. (1953-1960); Funland Kiddie Park, East Dundee, Illinois. (1961-1972)

Funland Kiddie Park was located in East Dundee. It was south of Santa’s Village, both of which were located on Illinois Route 25. It opened in 1959. 

A lot of people called this place Kiddyland (or Kiddieland). This park was the original local amusement park. It was also inexpensive. The park started on the east side of Route 25. After one season, it was moved to the west side of the road. When the park closed in 1972, the land was used for a Chevrolet dealership.

One of the most popular rides was the hand cars, also known as the pedal cars. It was a grand day when you got the strength to ride one by yourself. Even experienced riders got stuck. There was an employee who would come to the rescue.

The first ride a person saw were the train, a caged Ferris wheel, and a larger Ferris wheel. You would have to cross the train tracks to get to the entrance. The train went around the perimeter and through a shed. It was an open-type train, and a uniformed engineer sat on top. The train was stored in another shed on the property.

Sometimes, people went just for one of the Ferris wheels. Birthday parties were held here too. Others went for the other rides, such as the roller coaster. The Bozo Show’s Sandy the Clown and Ring Master Ned made an appearance too. 

The park closed in 1972.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Hasting's Bathing Beach and Amusement Park, Fox Lake, Illinois. (1885-1963)

Hasting's Bathing Beach and Amusement Park was a popular summer destination in Fox Lake, Illinois. The park was initially named "Hasting's Grove." It was located on the shores of Fox Lake and offered various attractions, including a swimming beach, a dance hall, a roller coaster, and a Ferris wheel.

The park was founded by John Hastings in 1885. Hastings was a local businessman who owned a lumber mill on the shores of Fox Lake. He saw the potential for a summer resort on the lake and opened Hasting's Bathing Beach in 1885.

The swimming beach was a major draw, and the park also offered a variety of other activities, such as boating, fishing, and picnicking. In the early 1900s, the park added several amusement rides, including a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, a carousel, and a midway with food concessions and games.

This photo is a visual aid.

Hasting's Bathing Beach and Amusement Park reached its peak popularity in the 1920s and early 1940s. The park was open from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year, attracting visitors from all over Chicagoland.

However, the park began to decline in popularity after World War II. The rise of television and other forms of entertainment led to a decline in attendance at amusement parks. Hasting's Bathing Beach and Amusement Park closed for good in 1963.

The park is now a residential development, but the swimming beach is still open to the public. The beach is a popular spot for swimming, sunbathing, and fishing.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Gould Amusement Park, Morris, Illinois. (1903-1967)

Gould Amusement Park was a popular amusement park in Morris, Illinois. The park was located on the banks of the Illinois River and was named after its owner, William Gould.

The park was founded by William Gould, a local businessman. Gould purchased a 60-acre plot of land on the riverfront in 1903 and began the construction of the park the following year. The park opened in 1904, featuring a variety of rides and attractions, including a roller coaster, a carousel, and a petting zoo. There was also a dance hall, a swimming pool, and a hotel with a restaurant on the grounds.

Gould Park was a popular destination for families, and it hosted various events throughout the year, including picnics, dances, concerts, school and day camp field trips, and company picnics. The park also hosted several special events, such as the annual Morris Firemen's Carnival and a few professional wrestling matches.

The park hosted famous entertainers, including Al Jolson, Sophie Tucker, and the Andrews Sisters.

Gould Park's popularity declined rapidly in the 1960s as people began to travel to larger amusement parks. Gould Amusement Park closed in 1967 after 64 years of operation. 

The park sold its rides. Today, the nature park is called Goold Park

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Henry Amusement Park, Murphysboro, Illinois. (1905-1961)

The park was initially called "Diehl's Park" but was renamed "Henry Amusement Park" in 1912.

Henry Amusement Park was a popular amusement park in Murphysboro, Illinois. The park was located on the banks of the Big Muddy River and was named after its owner, Henry E. Diehl.

Diehl opened the park in 1905 with a few rides and attractions, but it quickly grew in popularity. By the 1920s, Henry Amusement Park was a popular amusement park in Southern Illinois. 

The park featured a variety of rides and attractions. The park's most popular ride was the "Henry Flyer" roller coaster, built in 1922. Other rides included a Ferris wheel, a carousel, and a swimming pool with a water slide. The park also had a dance hall, a restaurant, a beer garden, a roller skating rink, and a midway with games and food vendors.

This photo is a visual aid.

The park also hosted several special events, including concerts, dances, and beauty pageants. Henry Amusement Park was a popular destination for Negroes, who were often excluded from other amusement parks, like Chicago's White City and Riverview Park in Illinois.

The park closed in 1961 after Henry Diehl died. The land was sold, and the park was eventually demolished. 

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.