Women Artists and the Civil War

Soldiers and Sailors Monument, Waukegan courthouse square. Dedicated August 1899

The panels Edith created represented dynamic images of the four aspects of military service during the Civil War—infantry, artillery, cavalry and navy. She gave up a summer trip to Europe to do the work, but the commission meant more to her than the vacation.

Ninety-six years later, Lily Tolpo was commissioned for another Civil War monument.

Lily Tolpo, circa 1960.

Lily Tolpo (1917 -  ) was the eldest of five children in a Chinese/Polish American family. She learned to play violin and performed as a Vaudeville musician from 1935-39, before becoming a professional artist and sculptor.

Tolpo was commissioned to do a pair of bronze bas relief plaques to complete a project started by her late husband, Carl Tolpo (1901 - 1976).

Lincoln monument by Carl Tolpo (1968), bronze plaques by Lily Tolpo (1996). Waukegan courthouse.

In 1968, Lake County commissioned Carl Tolpo to make one of his famous Lincoln monuments. There were to be two plaques on the sides of the pedestal, but funds were not available to complete the project, and the monument remained unfinished for nearly three decades.

Lily Tolpo with clay model of one of the plaques, illustrating Abraham Lincoln's visit to Waukegan on April 2, 1860. Northwestern Illinois Farmer photo.

In 1995, Lily was asked to finish the monument. According to Tolpo, she used her husband's concepts but rendered them "in another style more in keeping with the head [of the monument]." Her relief style captured "life-like reality and action."

Detail from clay model of plaque by Lily Tolpo. Featured on the plaque are some of Waukegan's most prominent men: (left to right) Mayor Elisha Ferry, Samuel Greenleaf and Horace Blodgett.

The scene represented on the plaque above depicts the evening of April 2, 1860 when Abraham Lincoln gave a speech in Waukegan. The speech was interrupted by a fire at the Case Warehouse at the North Pier, and tradition has it that Lincoln helped the citizens of Waukegan put out the fire. Lincoln spent the night at the home of Mayor Elisha Ferry. The Ferry home still stands at the northwest corner of Julian and County Streets.

This year, the Lake County Discovery Museum received a donation from ArtbyTolpoartist.com of the molds for Lily Tolpo's bronze plaques, and the model for Carl Tolpo's Lincoln monument.