Douglas Tilden (May 1, 1860 to August 5, 1935) was an American sculptor. He was deaf from a bout of scarlet fever at the age of four and attended the California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, California (now in Fremont, California). He sculpted many statues that are located today throughout San Francisco, Berkeley, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Early life Douglas Tilden was born on May 1, 1860 to Dr. William Peregrine Tilden and Catherine Maria Hecox Tilden in Chico, California. When he was four, he lost his hearing and speech after a severe bout of scarlet fever. His grandfather, Adna Hecox, and mother Catherine were part of the ill-fated Donner Party, but they separated from the Donners before they became snowbound. Tilden entered the California School for the Deaf (then located in San Francisco) on January 25, 1866, studying under Theophilus d'Estrella. He moved with the School to a location near the University of California, Berkeley campus at what is now the Clark Kerr Campus student residence in 1869 and graduated in 1879. After graduating, he went on to attend and teach at UC Berkeley, where he studied with Francis Marion Wells. 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. The board subsequently offered him an opportunity to pursue sculpting and in 1887, he left Berkeley to attend the Academy of Design in New York, and from there, left to study art in Paris. After arriving in Paris in 1888, Tilden studied under Paul-François Choppin, another deaf sculptor. After several successful years in Paris, during which he produced Ball Player (aka Our National Game), The Tired Boxer, Young Acrobat, Indian Bear Hunt, and Football Players, Tilden returned to the California School for the Deaf in 1893; however, after getting married in 1896, Tilden left the School to pursue sculpting full-time under reportedly acrimonious terms. Because his stint in Paris had been paid by the School, they felt he should continue to serve as a teacher, while Tilden felt his schooling had been a gift. In return, the California School for the Deaf confiscated one of Tilden's early artworks, The Bear Hunt, as payment. Bear Hunt had been exhibited at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and the California School for the Deaf paid for its transport