The Balbo Column in Chicago: A Patriotic Gift or a Fascist Ambassador? (20 min)

Presenters

Elizabeth Macaulay, Graduate Center, City University of New York

Abstract

Certain American cities have received archaeological artifacts and monuments as gifts from other nations. While New York City has the largest concentrations of archaeological gifts, Chicago received a column from fascist Italy. During the 1933–1934 Chicago World’s Fair, Benito Mussolini gave a late-republican column from Ostia to Chicago to commemorate the first transatlantic flight of the Italian air force in 1933. Named in honor of Italo Balbo, the famous squadron leader (1896–1940), the column was dedicated in 1934. The oldest monument in Chicago, it is also one of the few remaining structures in Burnham Park from the 1933–1934 fair.

This paper examines the column, the context of its dedication at the Chicago’s World’s Fair, and Mussolini’s participation in the fair to advance fascism. The column was erected on a modern pedestal with a dedicatory inscription in both Italian and English in front of the Italian Pavilion. 3,000 people attended its unveiling, and Balbo delivered a live radio address from Rome. At the corners of the rectangular pedestal were fasces (with axes), symbols of authority from ancient Rome that Mussolini co-opted and redefined. The column purposefully conflated ancient and modern Italy and articulated fascist Italy’s position as the successor to the Roman Empire. While this gift aimed to strengthen relations with the United States and to generate support for fascist Italy, the responses to the column at its moment of gifting were and still are decidedly mixed, as many have seen it as a fascist symbol.

While Mussolini was defeated and the fair is largely forgotten, the column is only now receiving critical scholarly attention. This paper concludes by examining the ongoing debates over appropriateness of this column as a monument in the aftermath of World War II. The column embodies the entangled nature of archaeology, classical antiquities, and politics.

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