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Montgomery Ward's "Progress" is the subject of some controversy. The National Register says that the Statue was relocated from the Ward Tower at 6 North Michigan Avenue to the Montgomery Ward Administration Building on West Chicago Avenue in 1929. Geoffrey Baer, during one of his Channel 11 "bits" indicated that the original Ward Tower Progress was completely nude, somehow "spun" and was never relocated to West Chicago Avenue.
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I was recently reading Horace Spencer Fiske's "Chicago in Pictures and Poetry" ( yes, it was a dark and stormy night....) and discovered the black and whites below: "Progress Lighting the Pathway of Commerce." "Progress" is attributed to Sculptor J. Massey Rhind. And like Geoffrey said, she is nude.
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Below is my photograph of Progress taken on West Chicago Avenue in 2008 (and included in my book CHICAGO FIGURAL SCULPTURE.) Comparing the two photos -- pose, feet, triton, torch, hairline --all seem very much the same. The main difference is that the Chicago Avenue "Progress" is clothed. Could it be her new dress is the torch flame reworked from the original??
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I'm afraid that the Fiske photographs are just a hair too small and blurred to make a confirmation. But, if I had to bet.......
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The only one who really knows is this guy (ram's head or devil's horns?) just above those restored Juliet baconies at 6 North -- and we may never get any closer to the truth than this.
For a better look at the Balconies see Lynn Becker's post "Juliet to Return..."
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