A new sculpture honoring Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, the Black explorer, fur trader and founder of Chicago, is bringing attention to a lesser-known chapter of his life in St. Charles.
The bronze sculpture, titled “Explorer,” was installed Sept. 16 outside the St. Charles County Historical Society. Sculptor Erik Blome created, funded and donated the 8.5-foot-tall bust, which weighs about three-quarters of a ton.
Blome is also the artist behind a DuSable sculpture installed in downtown Chicago in 2009. His work depicting Black historical figures and civil rights activists dates back decades, beginning after he was selected by the YWCA of Greater Milwaukee to create a sculpture of Martin Luther King Jr. He has since created works depicting Rosa Parks and the Edmonson sisters.
Blome said those projects have allowed him to explore American history while considering the role artists play in preserving it.
“We commemorate,” Blome told the American. “So we’re creating a memory.”
Blome said he wanted to make DuSable’s history more visible. He was particularly struck by the sculpture’s proximity to a statue of Daniel Boone, another frontiersman and fur trader who lived in the St. Charles area around the same period. Boone was also a slaveholder.
Blome said having DuSable, a frontiersman and businessman, represented nearby adds another perspective to the history being commemorated in the area.
“How cool is it that my DuSable is just up the street from that?” Blome said. “It’s acting as a sort of balance or the other history. It’s almost like the rest of the story being told.”
DuSable, a man of African and French ancestry, established a successful trading post along the Chicago River, where he also farmed and traded goods. In the early 1800s, he sold his Chicago estate and later settled in St. Charles, where he operated a ferry across the Missouri River.
DuSable died Aug. 28, 1818, and was buried in the original St. Charles Borromeo Cemetery. A marker honoring him stands in the present-day cemetery, although the location of his remains is uncertain.
Blome said the sculpture’s imposing size was intentional.
“I felt like size is really important because if it’s small, it’s easy to ignore it,” he said.
Blome created the sculpture using traditional methods, sculpting it by hand in clay before casting it in silicon bronze at his own foundry. He said the entire head was cast in his studio before the pieces were welded together.
A plaque accompanying the statue includes a QR code directing visitors to additional information about DuSable’s life and the project.
“Walk around it, touch it, see him, think about it,” Blome said.