Sun Dial
Centered directly in front of the Boyden Library sits a Longitude Dial, invented and fabricated by clockmaker William Andrewes. This dial is one of only a few in existence. A projection of the western hemisphere is laser etched on the polished stone face of the dial, with Deerfield at the center. The fixed wire gnomon (the cord suspended above the dial) casts a linear shadow onto this face, indicating where noon is at any given moment. Deerfield’s dial is engraved with a line that the bead’s shadow will follow each year on March 1, the day on which the Academy was founded in 1797. Around the perimeter of the dial, the gnomon’s shadow passes along a ring of Roman and Arabic numerals to indicate the hour and minute of local time. When the sun is due south, the length of the shadow produced will indicate the day of the year on a scale engraved in the granite paving.