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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 to the right. A third sundial is in the collection of the Missouri History Museum, which in Forest Park occupies the Jefferson Memorial Building that is the first national monument to President Thomas Jefferson. And a fourth sundial is located within the zoo. These four sundials are described in what follows.
The large sundial adjacent to the Jewel Box 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.)
Seen to the left is a portion of the dial plate of a third sundial in Forest Park. Although it is a sundial
with an interesting history, it is usually not on view. This
sundial is in the collection of the Missouri History Museum. It is thought by some to have been
designed by Thomas Jefferson and has been in the Museum's
collection since 1906. To learn more about this sundial, click on
A Forgotten Sundial Designed By Thomas Jefferson. For more about this sundial and whether or not it
was designed by Thomas Jefferson, see the discussion by Fred Sawyer of the North American
Sundial Society by clicking
here
and selecting Gnomonic Tales of the Founding Fathers -- Thomas Jefferson.
A sundial is located very near the entrance to the zoo in Forest Park; the entrance is pictured at the right. It is an interesting sundial but in poor condition and poorly situated. Hour lines and numbers on its bronze dial plate are barely visible, perhaps having been worn away by too vigorous scrubbing with an abrasive cleaning fluid; the dial is oriented so its gnomon does not point properly towards north; and, the dial is almost entirely shaded by surrounding trees. Sculptural features of the sundial include three small drinking fountains and an arc-shaped gnomon that is terminated at its tip by a short pipe so that sunlight shines through the pipe and then through a gap in the dial plate around the noon hour and then onto the ground or an object no longer present. An inscription surrounding the outer edge of the circular dial plate reads: In memory of Jane Howell Stupp 1930-1988. Dedicated by her friends & family. Her spirit cast forever free upon the oceans of the world. The sundial was designed and constructed by William Conrad Severson of St. Louis. Severson also designed his family obelisk that is located in Bellefontaine Cemetery; see Site 2 on the St. Louis Sundial Trail. More about the zoo sundial is available from Missouri entry #891 on the Sundial Registry of the North American Sundial Society.
More about Forest Park and the locations of the Jewel Box
and the Missouri History Museum in it
can be found by clicking on
Forest Park Information.
To go to the next site on the St. Louis Sundial Trail, click on
Site 8: Washington University, or to go to other sites on the trail, return
to the trail map.