'Make Way For Ducklings' Sculptor Unveils 'Myrtle The Turtle'

BEACON HILL, MA — You may know 80-year-old Myrtle the Turtle from the New England Aquarium's Giant Ocean Tank, where she's charmed visitors since the 1970s. But there's a new Myrtle in town, inspired by the endangered Kemp's ridley at the aquarium.

Nancy Schön, of Make Way for Ducklings fame, unveiled bronze sea turtle sculpture in Beacon Hill Monday. The sculpture was a gift, commissioned by the Beacon Hill Garden Club to celebrate 90 years of civic gardening, tours and education in Boston.

"We hope that people will enjoy what the garden club has done for the residents of Beacon Hill and Boston with our gift of the turtle and new fencing and plantings," Kate Enroth, president of the Beacon Hill Garden Club said in an email to Patch. "We are all residents of Beacon Hill and care greatly about creating a community with the playground. Our garden club was founded in 1928 with civic improvements in mind and this gift is an example of what we wish to do for Boston. We also hope that everyone will enjoy Myrtle and think a little about how to help our environment to preserve and protect turtles like her."

The real turtle has lived at the Aquarium since June 1970 and is approximately 80 years old, weighing in at more than 500 pounds, and eats lettuce, cabbage, squids, and brussels sprouts. The younger Myrtle is a four-foot-long sculpture and lives now at the Myrtle Street Playground in Beacon Hill. She feeds off the attention from the kids who will be climbing over her and playing on her.

Schön, who lives in Newton, is perhaps most known for her Make Way For Ducklings sculptures in the Public Gardens, but has created bronze statues for folks to play on from Newton to Dorchester to Booth Bay Maine.

"I have tried to teach some sort of a lesson, yet give people the joy and delight of interacting with what people normally are told not to touch," the artist said on her website. "The child in all of us responds to animals and the use of this metaphor reaches our inner most depths whatever our age."

Patch reporter Jenna Fisher can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna).