'Peace' and 'Harvest' Sculptures

Peace and Harvest are male and female statues, respectively, located in a downtown public plaza, at the west corner of Main and Jefferson Streets. The eight-foot figures were sculpted from Indiana limestone in 1938 and 1939 by Mary Andersen Clark as part of the Works Progress Administration federal art project.

Originally sited in front of the Peoria Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium (which was located approximately six miles northeast of downtown Peoria), Peace and Harvest were dedicated on September 3, 1939. They remained at the sanitarium until it closed in 1975, when they were moved to the lawn of the Peoria County Courthouse (one block south of their current location). There they remained until 1988, when they were removed to accommodate a courthouse expansion. Earlier that year Peace and Harvest had been named to the National Register of Historic Places, but they briefly lost that designation because their removal from the courthouse had not been approved. The statues arrived at their current site in June 1992.

With a shovel representing the concept of “swords into plowshares,” the male Peace figure gazes at a dove in his hand. Harvest, the female figure, holds the fruits of her labor, which could be either potatoes or apples.