Vertical Sundial

The bronze sundial in front of the de Young Museum rests on the back of a sculpted turtle. Created by San Francisco sculptor Melvin Earl Cummings and unveiled in nineteen oh seven, the dial features a bronze half-globe showing a relief map of the Western Hemisphere. It was commissioned by the California Society of the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America to honor early navigators who reached the Pacific coast, including Fortun Ximenez, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, and Sir Francis Drake.