The Martin family headstone
With Chicago, IL, hosting this year’s Clinical Congress, the ACS Archives invites Fellows and their colleagues and families to visit one of the city’s unique attractions—Graceland Cemetery. Known as “the cemetery of architects” for housing the burial sites of some of the visionaries whose buildings have defined Chicago’s skyline for generations, Graceland is also the final resting place of ACS Founder Franklin H. Martin, MD, FACS. Dr. Martin is buried with his wife, Isabelle, and her parents, Dr. and Mrs. John Hollister.
The park-like Graceland Cemetery was reimagined by noted landscape architect Ossian Simonds in the 1880s, featuring plants and trees native to Chicagoland. Resting atop the flat plains and gentle hills are some of the most spectacular grave markers in Chicago, including the Graves Family’s Eternal Silence, by sculptor Lorado Taft, and Marshall Field’s Memory, by sculptor Daniel Chester French.
Dr. Williams’ headstone
In additional to Dr. Martin, Graceland is the final resting place of Daniel Hale Williams, MD, FACS, the first African-American Fellow of the College, and Lucius Fisher, president of the Union Bag & Paper Company. Mr. Fisher was the last owner of the Nickerson Mansion before it became the College’s first headquarters.
Graceland Cemetery is open every day, 8:00 am–4:00 pm, and is located at 4001 N. Clark Street. If you are interested in planning a self-guided tour of the Graceland Cemetery or in seeing artifacts owned by Dr. Martin, visit the Archives booth in the ACS Resource Center in McCormick Place West, Hall F2, at this year’s Clinical Congress.
