The sculpture is a functional bowstring equatorial sundial created in 1980 measuring approximately 13 feet (4.0m).[2][3] The sundial was formerly located slightly further south at the steps of the main entry plaza to the Planetarium,[4][5] but it now sits directly on the lakefront. The work is a later copy of a composition first created in the 1960s for the offices of The Times newspaper at Printing House Square in London, and according to the Henry Moore Foundation is titled Sundial 1965–66.[6]
Details
Plaques explaining the sculpture's significance and usage
The sundial has two plaques on its base. The one on the left is a commemorative one discussing the benefactor and purpose of the sculpture. The benefactor of the sculpture was the B.F. Ferguson Monument fund, which has commissioned several works of art throughout Chicago. Many of the Ferguson fund's commissioned works, such as the Fountain of the Great Lakes, are housed in and on the grounds of the Art Institute of Chicago or elsewhere in Grant Park. The purpose of the commission was to recognize the space exploration program. The plaque on the right is an equation of time table to correct for the time differences caused by the axial tilt of the Earth as well as its orbital eccentricity. As the plaque indicates with an additional correction, the equation of time table does not correct for daylight saving time.[7]
Like most of Moore's work completed after 1954,[8] this was a modeled sculpture instead of a direct carving. The sculpture is composed of two bronze semicircles, one set inside and at right angles to the other and a slim bronze rod that extends from one end of the outer semicircle to the other that serves as the gnomon (indicator). The bowstring equatorial sundial derives its name from the appearance of the shadow-casting gnomon, which resembles a bow string. The shadow of the rod projects onto the inner semicircle, which serves as the dial face (or dial plate), to mark the time of day when there is sufficient sunlight to produce shadows.[2]
A standard unmodified equatorial sundial
Over the course of the year different sections of the rod serve as the style, which is the part of the gnomon that indicates the time by casting its shadow on the dial face. At the summer solstice, when the Sun is highest (farthest above the equatorial plane), the style is closest to the top of the rod, and at the winter solstice, when the Sun is lowest, it is closest to the bottom. At the equinoxes, when the Sun is on the equatorial plane, the style is exactly in the center of the length of the rod. The style of the equatorial sundial is parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation.
This type of sundial is known as an equatorial sundial because the plane of the dial face is parallel to the Earth's equatorial plane. Two primary examples of modified equatorial sundials are bowstring equatorial and armillary dials.[9] Both of these modified equatorial sundials can be read year-round on the same surface, regardless of whether the Sun is above or below the equatorial plane whereas a standard equatorial sundial changes sides with each equinox and is virtually unreadable near the equinoxes when the Sun is located on the equatorial plane.[10][11]
Between 1997 and 1999, The Adler Planetarium added a sky pavilion to the original 1930 architecture. When it did so, the roads were moved and the sundial was moved to its current location. The move was performed by contractors of the Adler Planetarium in two phases. First, the sculpture was removed and placed in storage to make way for the current roadway. It was later moved to its current position after the new roadway was built and the old roadway was replaced with a walkway. Now, a u-turn in Solidarity Drive runs through the original location of the sundial, and the sundial is located on the walkway that replaced the previous roadway that went around the planetarium. The new location and the u-turn can be seen on a Museum Campus map.[12] This construction was contemporaneous with the $100 million project that reconfigured of traffic around the Museum Campus and caused Lake Shore Drive to be moved during the mid-1990s.[13]
Moore in Chicago
Moore took pride in viewing his sculptures in their open-air environments.[14] He once said he would prefer to see his sculptures in any open landscape than in even the most beautiful buildings he knew.[15] Including this sculpture, Moore has a total of four public sculptures that are listed in the Smithsonian Institution's Research Information System (SIRIS) on display outdoors, in Chicago. All of them are bronze. His Nuclear Energy is situated on the campus of the University of Chicago at the site of the first self-sustaining nuclear reaction, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The site is also listed as a National Historic Landmark, and Chicago Landmark.[16] Other Chicago works include Large Interior Form, which is located in the north garden at the Art Institute of Chicago, and Reclining Figure, which is on loan to the University of Chicago and which is located in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center courtyard.[17][18] The Henry Moore Foundation lists several other indoor Chicago works at locations such as the Art Institute of Chicago and The Smart Museum.[4]
↑ "Equatorial". North American Sundial Society. Archived from the original on July 11, 2007. Retrieved September 30, 2007.
↑ "Equatorial Sundials". Walter Sanford – Sandburg Center for Sky Awareness. 2007. Archived from the original on August 29, 2007. Retrieved September 30, 2007.
↑ "Equatorial sundial". The Everything Development Company. April 23, 2002. Retrieved September 30, 2007.
↑ Macaluso, Tony, Julia S. Bachrach, and Neal Samors (2009). Sounds of Chicago's Lakefront: A Celebration Of The Grant Park Music Festival. Chicago's Book Press. p.46. ISBN978-0-9797892-6-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ "Bronze glory amid the trees". Economist.com (from The Economist print edition). The Economist Newspaper Limited. September 20, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2007.
Grant Park is a large urban park in the Loop community area of Chicago, Illinois. Located within the city's central business district, the 319-acre (1.29 km2) park's features include Millennium Park, Buckingham Fountain, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum Campus.
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat plate and a gnomon, which casts a shadow onto the dial. As the Sun appears to move through the sky, the shadow aligns with different hour-lines, which are marked on the dial to indicate the time of day. The style is the time-telling edge of the gnomon, though a single point or nodus may be used. The gnomon casts a broad shadow; the shadow of the style shows the time. The gnomon may be a rod, wire, or elaborately decorated metal casting. The style must be parallel to the axis of the Earth's rotation for the sundial to be accurate throughout the year. The style's angle from horizontal is equal to the sundial's geographical latitude.
A gnomon is the part of a sundial that casts a shadow. The term is used for a variety of purposes in mathematics and other fields.
The Adler Planetarium is a public museum in Chicago, Illinois, dedicated to astronomy and astrophysics. It was founded in 1930 by local businessman Max Adler. Located on the northeastern tip of Northerly Island on Lake Michigan, the Adler Planetarium was the first planetarium in the United States. It is part of Chicago's Museum Campus, which includes the John G. Shedd Aquarium and The Field Museum. The Planetarium's mission is to inspire exploration and understanding of the universe.
William Ordway Partridge was an American sculptor, teacher and author. Among his best-known works are the Shakespeare Monument in Chicago, the equestrian statue of General Grant in Brooklyn, the Pietà at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, and the Pocahontas statue in Jamestown, Virginia.
Northerly Island is a 119-acre (48 ha) human-made peninsula and park located on Chicago's Lake Michigan lakefront. Originally constructed in 1925, Northerly Island was the former site of the Century of Progress world's fair and later Meigs Field airport and, since Meigs Field's closure, has been a recreational area part of Chicago's Museum Campus. It is the site of the Adler Planetarium, the Huntington Bank Pavilion, the Northerly Island Natural Area, the 12th Street Beach and numerous art installations. Per its name, Northerly Island was constructed as an island, but is connected to the lakefront by a causeway at the northern end carrying Solidarity Drive to the planetarium.
Museum Campus is a 57-acre (23 ha) park in Chicago facing Lake Michigan in Grant Park. It encompasses five of the city's major attractions: the Adler Planetarium, America's first planetarium; the Shedd Aquarium; the Field Museum of Natural History. It is adjacent to Soldier Field, home of the NFL Chicago Bears football team; and the Lakeside Center of McCormick Place and to Northerly Island park and Burnham Harbor.
Henry Spencer Moore was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore also produced many drawings, including a series depicting Londoners sheltering from the Blitz during the Second World War, along with other graphic works on paper.
Analemmatic sundials are a type of horizontal sundial that has a vertical gnomon and hour markers positioned in an elliptical pattern. The gnomon is not fixed and must change position daily to accurately indicate time of day. Hence there are no hour lines on the dial and the time of day is read only on the ellipse. As with most sundials, analemmatic sundials mark solar time rather than clock time.
Large Interior Form, 1953–54 is a sculpture by Henry Moore.
Nuclear Energy (1964–1966) is a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore on the campus of the University of Chicago at the site of the world's first nuclear reactor, Chicago Pile-1. The first human-made self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was created here on December 2, 1942. The sculpture is set in a granite paved quadrangle, with the paving stones radiating outward from the sculpture, and memorial plaques mounted on a adjacent wall. The memorial site is a National Historic Landmark and Chicago Landmark.
Astronomical rings, also known as Gemma's rings, are an early astronomical instrument. The instrument consists of three rings, representing the celestial equator, declination, and the meridian.
A sundial is a device that indicates time by using a light spot or shadow cast by the position of the Sun on a reference scale. As the Earth turns on its polar axis, the sun appears to cross the sky from east to west, rising at sun-rise from beneath the horizon to a zenith at mid-day and falling again behind the horizon at sunset. Both the azimuth (direction) and the altitude (height) can be used to create time measuring devices. Sundials have been invented independently in every major culture and became more accurate and sophisticated as the culture developed.
Sundial, Boy With Spider is an outdoor sculpture and functional sundial by American artist Willard Dryden Paddock (1873–1956). It is located within the Oldfields estate on the grounds of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The bronze sculpture, cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, depicts a boy sitting cross-legged with an open scroll in his lap.
The Whitehurst & Son sundial was produced in Derby in 1812 by the nephew of John Whitehurst. It is a fine example of a precision sundial telling local apparent time with a scale to convert this to local mean time, and is accurate to the nearest minute. The sundial is now housed in the Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
A London dial in the broadest sense can mean any sundial that is set for 51°30′ N, but more specifically refers to a engraved brass horizontal sundial with a distinctive design. London dials were originally engraved by scientific instrument makers. The trade was heavily protected by the system of craft guilds.
A schema for horizontal dials is a set of instructions used to construct horizontal sundials using compass and straightedge construction techniques, which were widely used in Europe from the late fifteenth century to the late nineteenth century. The common horizontal sundial is a geometric projection of an equatorial sundial onto a horizontal plane.
America's Courtyard: A Symbolic Integration of the Americas is an outdoor stone sculpture by husband and wife Brazilian artists Ary Perez and Denise Milan, installed outside Chicago's Adler Planetarium, in the U.S. state of Illinois.
The Class of 1885 Memorial Sundial is a landmark at Columbia University, located at the center of the College Walk at the other end of Butler Plaza from Butler Library. Designed by astronomy professor Harold Jacoby in conjunction with McKim, Mead & White, it was completed in 1914. The 16-short-ton (15 t) granite sphere that once sat on top of it, at some point considered the largest stone sphere in the world, was removed in 1946 after it began to crack; efforts have been made toward its recovery since it was rediscovered in Michigan in 2001. The sundial's bare platform now serves as a popular meeting area for students, as well as a center for campus politics.
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