The bronze sculpture, cast by the Gorham Manufacturing Company, depicts a boy sitting cross-legged with an open scroll in his lap.

A bronze spider is affixed to the wire in the correct place to act as the gnomon of the sundial.

Inscribed on the scroll are a grid of lines and analemmas marked with months, dates, and hours sufficient to plot the time over the course of the year, as well as a set of coordinates that mark the original location of the sculpture: Inscribed on the proper left bottom corner: Cast in relief along the edge of the base in Roman letters: Inscribed on the base at proper left: Stamped along base rim under “WHILE”: The bronze sculpture is monitored, cleaned, and treated regularly by the IMA art conservation staff.

The surface of the bronze is protected from deterioration and corrosion by the yearly application of a fresh coat of hard wax.

[1] In 2004 the IMA conservation staff undertook a major treatment of the sculpture in which the surface was repatinated to unify the color and improve its readability, and the newly fabricated wire and spider gnomon were added to restore the functionality of the sundial.