Selected Sundials of North America

This is a selected listing of sundials in the North American Sundial Society Registry. Click on any dial thumbnail picture or city name to display the full dial description with additional information and images.

 

South Carolina

 
Barnwell South Carolina USA Vertical Dial Dial 112
This vertical cast iron dial is a rectangle approximately 30x40 inches mounted on a pole. The Barnwell sundial was a gift to the city in Sept 1858 from state senator J.D. Allen, and has continuously shown civil time - accurate to within two minutes - for over 150 years. The vertical dial has an Equation of Time list of corrections for each week, giving the correction in minutes and seconds. A canon ball from the civil war sits atop the sundial. The dial is surrounded by a low circular wall with bronze statuary of a boy walking on the wall and a girl at some distance, looking at the dial.
 
 
Beaufort South Carolina USA Horizontal Dial Dial 1014
Farenholt sundial for U.S. Naval Hospital Parris Island SC. This cast bronze dial was designed and commissioned by RADM Farenholt for U.S. Naval Hospitals at bases where he was commanding officer, visited, or had special meaning to him. The dial is 18 inches (46cm) in diameter. The outer chapter ring has the motto, followed by a chapter ring with Arabic hours 6am to 6pm, raised hour lines that radiate from near the foot of the gnomon and short half-hour lines. The gnomon has graceful curves and a star cut-out in the center. Below the gnomon is the naval command name, followed by the commissioning date in the southern portion of the hours chapter ring.
 
 
Charleston South Carolina USA Vertical Dial Dial 361
A 20 foot stone monument with a 2 foot diameter vertical recliner dial. See the NASS Compendium Vol.6 No. 1 Dec 1998. The platform in the base includes stones from the thirty-eight home states of those lost. Imbedded in the in the platform is a bronze arrow, pointing to the unmarked grave in the Atlantic.
 
 
Charleston South Carolina USA Horizontal Dial Dial 718
A weathered 10 by 15 inch oval marble horizontal dial with bronze gnomon. Dial face has hour lines with Roman numerals showing standard time. Dial sits atop a concrete pedestal with two steps at base. Pedestal has insets on faces, one of which carries a marble plaque with barely readable inscription.
 
 
Chesterfield South Carolina USA Armillary Sphere Dial 274
ca 20' Bronze Spherical bronze sundial consisting of three intersecting circles supporting an arrow shaped gnomon. Open mouthed gargoyles surround the column's highly carved capital atop a white octagonal column 33 inches high.
 
 
Hilton Head South Carolina USA Horizontal Dial Dial 1071
A self-proclaimed "World's Largest Figurative Sundial" centers on a 12 foot (3.6m), 3000 pound (1360 kg) statue of Neptune. His trident, set at an angle of 32 degrees, serves as the gnomon. This massive structure sits on a low dais 26 feet (8m) in diameter, surrounded by low octagonal steps. Neptune is an impressive sculpture by Wayne Edwards. But the hour lines are a disaster. "Edwards enlisted the help of experts Frank Yerkes and Richard Hamilton of the engineering firm Sea Island Engineering, now known as Sea Island Land Survey, LLC" They could find north (and there is an "N" in the chapter ring indicating true north, but regardless of the story about sighting Polaris, the noon mark is aligned -8 degrees to the west, pointing to magnetic north). More serious is the marking of hour lines from IV (am) to VIII (pm). The VI hour lines are opposite, but drawn to the center of the dais that is easily 9 feet (3m) from the base of the trident gnomon where they belong. This great structure will never tell solar time.
 
 
Murrells Inlet South Carolina USA Horizontal Dial Dial 283
This graceful 10 foot bronze sundial is a model of Paul Manship's dial "Time and Fates of Man" made for the 1939 New York World's Fair. The 1939 dial was made of plaster and stood 80 feet tall, claiming to be the biggest sundial in the world.
 
 
Murrells Inlet South Carolina USA Armillary Sphere Dial 303
This bronze armillary titled "Cycle of Life"is one of several by Paul Manship in the 20's. The equatorial band has Roman hour numbers on the inside and ornate signs of the zodiac on the outside. Also on the dial are the four elements of earth, fire, water, and air. In the center are three figures of a man, woman, and child symbolizing the cycle of life.