The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 18, May 1, 2005, Article 10

KITTANNING MEDAL AND THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR

An article in the April 29, 2005 edition of the Leader Times
of Armstrong County, PA, describes a new exhibit at the
Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center,
featuring a rare Kittanning medal.

"All historically-minded eyes will be focused on Pittsburgh when
what is proclaimed to be the "Largest French and Indian War
Exhibition in the World" opens for public viewing Sunday."

"People ask why this war is of any interest to us, here," history
center president and CEO Andy Masich said. "Truly, the French
and Indian War was the first world war. It was a time when the
whole world was ablaze and it started here in western Pennsylvania."

In Europe it is known as the Seven Years War.

"It was a struggle between three empires," he explained, "the British,
the French and American Indian people -- the Iroquois Nation."

One of the many highlights of the exhibit is significant to Armstrong
County -- the Kittanning Medal, the first documented military medal
awarded in colonial America.

The medal was engraved by Edward Duffield, a Philadelphia
watchmaker and engraver, and cast January 5, 1757, by noted
Philadelphian silversmith Joseph Richardson in honor of Lt. Col.
John Armstrong's victory in the battle at Kittanning.

The original medal also was cast in pewter, copper and bronze.
The sliver medal is the most rare, less than six are known to still
exist. Reproductions were cast following the end of the American
Revolutionary War, and in the early 1800s."

[The article does not say any more about the silver Kittanning
medal being displayed, so I'm not sure who owns it. Has
anyone compiled a list of the current whereabouts of the six
known specimens? -Editor]

To read the full article, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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