The monument commemorates Dexter Graves, who in 1831 led a group of thirteen families from Ohio to settle in Chicago.

His body was presumably relocated from its original resting place at the old City Cemetery (the present site of Lincoln Park).

[3] The horse monument never materialized, despite the construction of a model; instead, in 1920, another Taft piece, Fountain of Time, was built in its place and features a hooded figure similar to the one in Eternal Silence.

[5] One folktale claims that looking into the eyes of the statue's hooded figure causes the viewer to see a vision of his or her own death.

[5] Historically speaking, the figure in Eternal Silence is related to the sculpted funeral procession around the Tomb of Philip the Bold in Dijon, France and the Adams Memorial by Augustus Saint-Gaudens in Washington, D.C.[5] The statue has been noted as Graceland Cemetery's most "unforgettable" monument.