Art@Site www.artatsite.com Erik Blome Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable
Artist:

Erik Blome

Title:

Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable

Year:
2009
Adress:
Pioneer Court
Website:
www.publicartinchicago.com:
The plaque reads: Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable 1745-1818 Founder of Chicago..
African-Caribbean, born in St.Mare, Haiti.
In the 1770's he opened the first trading post, beside the Chicago River, establishing the settlement that became Chicago. The DuSable homestead was located near this site.
This monument was given to the City of Chicago by Haitian-born Mr. Lesley Benodin, to honor the legacy of it's founder. Bust of Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable.
Erik Blome 2009 City of Chicago
Richard M Daley, Mayor. Public Art Collection.

www.wikipedia.org:
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable (or Point de Sable, Point au Sable, Point Sable, Pointe DuSable) (before 1750 – August 28, 1818) is regarded as the first permanent resident of what became Chicago, Illinois.
Little is known of his life prior to the 1770s. In 1779, he was living on the site of present-day Michigan City, Indiana, when he was arrested by the British military on suspicion of being an American sympathizer in the American Revolutionary War.
In the early 1780s he worked for the British lieutenant-governor of Michilimackinac on an estate at what is now the city of St. Clair, Michigan, before moving to settle at the mouth of the Chicago River.
He is first recorded living in Chicago in early 1790, having apparently become established sometime earlier.
He sold his property in Chicago in 1800 and moved to St. Charles, Missouri, where he died in 1818.