The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 16, April 18, 2004, Article 9

SMITHSONIAN MEDAL EXHIBIT ARTICLE

  [The following article by Katie Heinrich is reprinted with
  permission from the American Numismatic Association's
  "Your Newsletter," a weekly email magazine for young
  numismatists, edited by Education Director Gail Baker
  -Editor]

  New Smithsonian Display of Medals
  by Katie Heinrich

  Some pieces of art in the Smithsonian Institution are
  admired by almost everyone and looked at by nearly each
  visitor that steps through the door. One of these such pieces
  is Thomas Moran?s painting titled ?Grand Canyon of the
  Yellowstone?. This huge landscape, one of the largest
  paintings on display, looks as if you might be able to simply
  walk out into the surrounding beauty. Though some works
  of art receive such high regard, others have never even been
  seen by the public eye, lost to the immense storage of the
  Smithsonian. One of these groups of hidden art is that of the
  commemorative medals. In bronze, copper, silver, or gold,
  many of these medals are utterly spectacular, full of
  eye-catching design that is the work of talented artists. Then
  again, some of these flat, circular hunks of metal are very plain,
  with no creative flair at all. Yet, because of a most generous
  donation of ten million dollars from the Luce Foundation
  (which was established by Henry R. Luce, the co-founder
  of Time Inc., in 1936), many of these medals will go on
  display for the first time. The majority of them have never
  been seen by the public. This fantastic exhibit will be on
  display when the Smithsonian American Art Museum
  reopens in 2006, after the renovation of the Patent Office
  Building.

  Many medals feature important places or people, figures of
  mythology, or scenes of figurative meaning. One to be
  displayed, the fiftieth anniversary medal of the United Parcel
  Service, bears the portraits of the founders upon the obverse
  and a 1930s UPS delivery truck on the reverse. This UPS
  medal, along with the William Saunders mining achievement
  medal, is the work of sculptor Anthony de Francisci. Francisci
  not only produced a number of medals, but also designed the
  U.S. Peace Dollar (minted from 1921 to 1935). Many artists
  who produced commemorative medals did so for various
  organizations and societies. They sometimes had a difficult
  time constructing true works of art because of the strict
  regulations that the commissioning committees often set down.
  The majority of the time artists would be required to put a
  portrait of a specific person on the obverse of the medal but
  were given a little more freedom in designing the reverse.
  Because of this, the back of medals are often much more
  imaginative and symbolic.

  The museum's officials hope to attract new visitors with the
  new exhibit of medals. They would also like it to invite frequent
  visitors to come to the Smithsonian with a new interest in mind.
  But some officials truly anticipate that the display will draw
  numismatists and art historians that have never been to the
  museum before. Medals produced before the 1940s are much
  more appealing to the eye than the ones created after World
  War II. Still, artists were able to create beautiful works of art
  on many medals."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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