Eugene Field - Legacy

Legacy

Several of his poems were set to music with commercial success. Many of his works were accompanied by paintings from Maxfield Parrish. His former home in St. Louis is now a museum. A memorial to him, a statue of the "Dream Lady" from his poem "Rock-a-by-Lady", was erected in 1922 at the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. There is also a park and fieldhouse named in his honor in Chicago's Albany Park neighborhood. In nearby Oak Park, Illinois, another park is named in his honor. A statue of Wynken, Blynken and Nod adorns Washington Park, near Field's Denver home.

Field has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Numerous elementary schools throughout the Midwest are named for him, e.g. Eugene Field Elementary School in Wheeling, Illinois,(Rock Island, Illinois), Elmhurst, IL, Normal, IL, Park Ridge, Illinois, St. Joseph, Missouri, Hannibal, Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, Mexico, Missouri, Neosho, Missouri, Poplar Bluff, Missouri, Webb City, Missouri, Manhattan, Kansas, Ottawa, Kansas, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Beaumont, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota. There is also a Eugene Field Elementary School in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Silverton, Oregon, Littleton, Colorado, Tulsa, Oklahoma, Chicago, Illinois, Altus, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Hugo, Oklahoma and San Diego, California. One of the branches of the Denver Public Library is named after Field. A dormitory in the Orchard Hill residential area at the University of Massachusetts Amherst also bears Field's name.

Reviewing an actor named Creston Clarke in the title role of King Lear, Field commented that, "Mr. Clarke played the King all evening as though under constant fear that someone else was about to play the Ace."

There is also an apartment building in Denver, Colorado's Poet's Row named after him.