Dedicated in 1919, the statue was designed by Leonard Crunelle and located in the city's Lincoln Park.

Richard J. Oglesby was an American politician and military commander who served in the Union Army during the American Civil War and served multiple terms as Governor of Illinois, and then as a U.S.

[1] By December 1916, sculptor Leonard Crunelle was chosen to design a monument honoring him at a cost of $25,000, approved by the Illinois General Assembly.

[2] The monument, featuring a bronze sculpture of Oglesby atop a granite pedestal,[3] was dedicated in 1919 in Lincoln Park.

[1] Over the next several decades, the statue was subjected to extensive vandalism, including from spray paint graffiti, and c. 1990, the granite base was coated in urethane, ostensibly for preservation, but having the unintended consequence of changing the pedestal's cover and making it more susceptible to water damage.