Douglas Tilden (WPA)

Peter Van Valkenburgh

Douglas Tilden, a world famous sculptor, was born in Chico, California on May 1, 1860. He lost his hearing at the age of four or five after contacting scarlet fever. Tilden attended the newly opened California School for the Deaf located at 2601 Warring Street in Berkeley, graduating in 1879 with honors. Tilden accepted a position at the school where he taught for eight years and it is thought that he first explored sculpture during the summer of 1883. The Board of Trustees of the California School for the Deaf lent him money to go to New York in 1887 and the following year, with a grant form the Durham Fund, he left for Paris to study sculpture. His first submission to the Paris Salon, The Baseball Player, was accepted in 1889 and his works was included in the Salons of 1891, 1892 and 1894. William E. Brown purchased The Baseball Player and presented it to the City of San Francisco and it can still be viewed in Golden Gate Park.

Tilden was commissioned by the City of San Francisco to create the Admission Day Fountain (Native Son Monument) and a bronze likeness of Father Junipero Serra. There is a famous photograph of Tilden's sculpture, The Mechanics Statue, standing alone against the backdrop of the haunting ruins of downtown San Francisco following the 1906 earthquake. Tilden died on August 4, 1935, and is buried in Oakland, California.