| Eli Bates Fountain | |
| Metric Unit: | cm |
| Imperial Unit: | in |
| City: | Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Mapframe: | yes |
| Mapframe-Zoom: | 13 |
Eli Bates Fountain, also known as Storks at Play,[1] is a fountain and sculpture in the center of the formal garden outside Lincoln Park's Conservatory, in Chicago, Illinois.[2] [3] [4]
The fountain is composed of a large, circular granite basin, two bronze storks (or, possibly, herons) with outstretched wings and water spewing water from their beaks, three figures that are half-boy and half-fish each holding unwieldy fishes, and bronze reeds and cattails at the center.
The fountain was installed in 1887 as a gift from Eli Bates, a wealthy Chicago business man. It was designed by famous artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907), and his assistant Frederick William MacMonnies (1863–1937), who later would design the famous central fountain, the Grand Barge of State, in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.[5]