Site 5: Forest Park
on the
St. Louis Sundial Trail

Forest Park, the location in St. Louis of the 1904 World's Fair, is a large city park containing many attractions for St. Louis residents and visitors. A zoo, outdoor theater, art museum, history museum, science center, ice-skating rink, and golf courses are among its attractions. The Jewel Box, pictured at the right, occupies 17 acres in Forest Park.  It was built by the City of St. Louis in 1936. Special flower shows are held in it several times each year.  Two sundials are located near the Jewel Box.  One is a large vertical sundial situated in a flower garden to the East. The other is at the South entrance, as seen in the picture.

The large sundial is pictured at the left.  The following description of it is taken from a brochure published by the St. Louis Department of Parks, Recreation, and Forestry: "Korean War Memorial. Sundial designed by Mel Meyer, SM. Installed in 1989. Stainless steel. In 1951, a floral clock was installed in Forest Park near the Jewel Box as a memorial for those who served during the Korean War. Deterioration and mechanical problems caused that memorial to be decommissioned in 1985 [see picture below]. A new memorial, an eight-foot stainless steel sundial, was designed to replace it. The new memorial was surrounded by plantings of viburnum, ivy, and barberry."  The picture at the right of the floral clock that was replaced in 1951 appears on page 218 in the 1986 book Forest Park by Laughlin & Anderson (Missouri History Museum Library, STL 711 F76L).  The caption with the picture is "The floral clock in the Jewel Box gardens.  Below the clock, flowers formed the inscription 'Hours and flowers soon fade away.' "
      The photograph of this Korean War Memorial sundial was taken on May 29, 2000 at 3:30 p.m. CDT. The height of the gnomon is 85 inches, and the length of the gnomon's base is 106 inches, so an arctangent calculation has the gnomon inclining 38.7o to the its base. The width of the gnomon is 3.5 inches. The dial appears to face directly south.   A plaque near the sundial has the following inscription.

 

 

IT'S ABOUT TIME
This unique sculpture is a precise sundial.
Unique as an upright sundial is, it symbolizes
the community's response to the need to
remember forever our veterans of the Korean War.
We genuinely remember and respect these veterans, living and dead.

The horizontal sundial pictured at the right is located at the South entrance to the Jewel Box.  The face of the dial is pictured below, showing that it was dedicated to honor Mary Harrison Leighton Shields.  Furniture on the dial face includes the inscribed motto "We Live In Deeds - Not Years" and a winged-hour-glass signifying the flight of time. 

The plaque at the base of the pedestal reads: Erected by the Missouri Society Colonial Dames of America [as a] tribute to the memory of Mary Harrison Leighton Shields, who organized the Society in 1896 and was for seventeen years its president, [until] 1913.

The diameters of the bronze dial-plate and top of the granite pedestal are 12.5 and 16.5 inches, respectively, and the height of the pedestal is 38.5 inches.

On November 13, 2007, at 9:03 AM CST, this Shields sundial indicated about 9:31 AM.  Since the Equation of Time for this date is about + 16 m, 40 s, the dial should instead read 9:20.  The discrepancy is due in part to the angle of the gnomon being about 36o instead of the latitude of the dial's location, which is 38.6o, as seen in the picture at the left.
     Shields' father, John Leighton, was born in Ireland and belonged to the family of that name "which has left its impression on English and Irish history."  She is charter member no. 34 of the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The idea that "the American flag be displayed over every school and that all teachers instruct students in the words and music of the Star Spangled Banner" is attributed to Shields.  The Harrison in her name comes by virtue of her family tie to Benjamin Harrison, who signed the Declaration of Independence and who is the ancestor of Presidents William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison.  (This biographical information is from the Encyclopedia of the History of St. Louis by Hyde & Conrad, Missouri History Museum Library, Vol. IV STL 9 H99.)

More about Forest Park and the location of the Jewel Box in it can be found by clicking on Forest Park Information.


To go to the next site on the St. Louis Sundial Trail, which is about 2.5 miles from the Jewel Box in Forest Park, click on Site 6, Washington University, or to go to other sites on the trail, return to the trail map.