16 Facts About Douglas Tilden

Douglas Tilden was deaf from a bout of scarlet fever at the age of four and attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, California.

Douglas Tilden sculpted many statues that are located today throughout San Francisco, Berkeley, and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Douglas Tilden was born on May 1,1860, to Dr William Peregrine Tilden and Catherine Maria Hecox Tilden in Chico, California.

Douglas Tilden moved with the School to a location near the University of California, Berkeley campus at what is the Clark Kerr Campus student residence in 1869 and graduated in 1879.

Douglas Tilden picked up sculpting in 1883, producing a small statuette entitled Tired Wrestler in 1885 which drew the attention of the board of the California School for the Deaf.

Douglas Tilden was first recognized for his sculpture while in Paris.

Douglas Tilden's first exhibited work, entitled The National Game, known as The Baseball Player, or The Ball Player, was a sculpture of a baseball pitcher in his windup.

Douglas Tilden was a member of the National Sculpture Society.

In 1901, Douglas Tilden was declared "violently insane" after an incident at his father-in-law's house where he without warning "began destroying the furniture in the room" in which his family was gathered.

Douglas Tilden had returned home early and, forgetting his key, had entered the house through an open window.

On June 9,1896, Douglas Tilden was married to Elizabeth "Bessie" Cole, a former student of his, deaf.

Douglas Tilden first met d'Estrella, 9 years his senior, as a child when Douglas Tilden enrolled at California School for the Deaf in 1866.

Douglas Tilden wrote of their night together: it was a 'very warm night'.

Gallaudet's collection has love letters from Douglas Tilden writing from his Paris trip to d'Estrella in Berkeley.

Douglas Tilden was found dead in his Berkeley studio on August 6,1935; he had died of a heart attack while trying to heat water.

Douglas Tilden is buried in the Cole family plot of Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California, with his ex-wife Bessie and son Willoughby.