News : Cottage Garden Society Donates a Sculpture to Evergreen Cemetery

Cindy Elwick, Stan Geiken, Bill Strouf, Jeanne Mann and Ted Mann stand next to the armillary installed at Evergreen Cemetery.

A few years ago, before COVID, the Cottage Garden Society was considering how we could contribute some beauty to the community. Several projects were considered, but we voted to make our first offer to the Evergreen Cemetery Board. A committee of Jeanne Mann, Cindy Elwick, Ann Jorgensen, and Marca Hite met and considered several ideas. Ultimately, the idea of an armillary on a concrete pedestal was agreed upon wit the cemetery board. 

The armillary was designed and constructed by Sam Seigel, a metal artist from the Amana area. The armillary was created several hundred years ago. Originally, they were astronomical devices that represented the great circles of the heavens. Some of the original armillary included many rings which represented the horizon, the meridian, the equator, solar circles, and an ecliptic hoop. The ecliptic hoop represents the plane of the earth's path around the sun.  The rings are represented as separate hoops which circle the earth. in the 17th century, the armillary was transformed into a sundial.  The inner dial was marked with Roman numerals and an arrow was added to cast a shadow to mark time. The arrow must point to true north on the sundial armillary. 

Cottage Garden Society members, Bill Strouf and Stan Geiken enlisted the help of Ben Olson to dig the hole for the footings. Bill and Stan were the lucky "volunteers" who built the form and mixed and poured the concrete late in August. In October, Ted and Jeanne Mann picked up the armillary in Amana and brought it to Vinton. Ted, Bill, and Stan installed the armillary on the concrete pedestal at Evergreen Cemetery on October 16th. Cindy Elwisk has ordered a plaque which will be installed on the concrete base. It will list the Cottage Garden Society as the donor as well as the year of installation. Thank you to the Evergreen Cemetery Board for their support of this project. Cottage Garden Society and the Evergreen Cemetery Board invite you to take a drive to Evergreen to view the new armillary. 

Picture: Standing behind the newly installed Armillary are representatives of the Cottage Garden Society who contributed to its recent installation at Evergreen Cemetery. Cottage Garden Society presented the Armillary to the cemetery as a part of the Society's desire to help beautify the city. A plaque will be added at a late date.