Visionary gay Italian artist, anatomist, inventor, engineer Leonardo da Vinci was honored with a Legacy Walk plaque at the 12th annual dedication ceremony Oct. 12 in Chicago’s Northalsted neighborhood.
The world’s only outdoor LGBTQ+ history museum, the Legacy Walk is a part of the non-profit education-focused Legacy Project organization. Each year new plaque(s) are added on or close to National Coming Out Day date (Oct. 11) to honor the contributions from LGBTQ+ people across human history—and everywhere on Earth.
Attendees gathered at the da Vinci plaque location, 3707 N. Halsted St., near Center on Halsted to hear from Legacy Project Executive Director and co-founder Victor Salvo and one of the plaque co-sponsors, former Legacy Project Board Member Paul Highfield.
Salvo welcomed everyone and said this plaque marks the 51st person/milestone installed on the Legacy Walk since the first ceremony took place in 2012. He added that this “has been a labor of love on my part and for the many, many people who have stepped up to make these plaques possible.”
“Legacy stands in a very unique spot,” said Salvo. “We have the Legacy Walk, that you are standing on right now, which is the largest LGBTQ+ site on Earth ever to be declared an historic landmark. It is the largest collection of bronze biographical markers in any one installation in the world and the only one of its kind focused on LGBTQ+ history worldwide. It also has a cousin, the Legacy Wall, which is our traveling installation and has been to 52 cities in the United States. We have the honor of preparing and maintaining the LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum that is mandated by the state of Illinois.”
Salvo noted that all the lesson plans are complex and “very deliberately age-appropriate.” He added that the entire Legacy Project has grown in its programmatic reach, as they are working to have the message about LGBTQ+ contributions to world history and culture spread to a nationwide audience.
Highfield spoke about all of the people who helped him sponsor this plaque and thanked them for their support.
“I sat on the board for 10 years of the Legacy Project and I absolutely loved it,” said Highfield. “I’m still involved with it, ergo the plaque this year. I think it was a general consensus among all of us co-sponsors that it should be Leonardo da Vinci. More than anything, [Activist] Lori Cannon who could not be with us today and wanted to be, really pushed for Leonardo, so that is why we made this choice.”
Salvo also spoke about how historical figures’ LGBTQ+ identities are often questioned since there was never a way to document their queer relationships with, for example, a marriage license; these people had to hide who they were from the rest of the world over fears of being ostracized or criminalized. He added that it wasn’t until 2008 that the family of Legacy Walk inductee Jane Addams acknowledged she was a lesbian. da Vinci has only recently been referred to as gay by some historians and biographers, most notably Walter Isaacson, who wrote an over 600 page book chronicling da Vinci’s life and works.
Salvo said this is why the work of the Legacy Project and the Legacy Walk is so important: to put that one sentence about historical figures’ queer/trans identity back into their biographies—a sentence someone else thought was so important it had to be left out. He also talked about da Vinci’s 30-year romantic relationship with Gian Giacomo Caprotti da Oreno, who is better known by the name of Salaì, and his connection to the Mona Lisa painting.
After Salvo’s remarks, he read the plaque biography and then two co-sponsors, Ron Puskarits and Paul DeSousa, unveiled the plaque.
Salvo gave a short tour of other Legacy Walk plaques that featured composer Leonard Bernstein, playwright Lorraine Hansberry, modern dance pioneer Alvin Ailey, Two Spirit People, jazz composer Billy Strayhorn and several others. The group made their way down Halsted Street to Sidetrack (an event sponsor) for the dedication reception where a video on da Vinci was shown to illustrate the kinds of materials available to students for free on the organization’s website.
Note: Reporter Carrie Maxwell is also the Legacy Project Senior Researcher.