REV. MUHLENBERG AND HIS MEDAL

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V26 2023 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 26, Number 53, December 31, 2023, Article 8

Author Jim Haas submitted these notes on Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg and the medal Victor David Brenner designed featuring him. Thanks! -Editor

My current project of editing a book penned by an artist friend is coming to an end, and my hope is to begin writing another book. The subject will be either a comprehensive history of College Point, NY or how the community experienced WWII. Both are near and dear.

With regard to the former, yesterday I chanced upon two versions of an article about a new medal that was published in the New York Times and The Sun in 1896. The person for whom the medal was struck, Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg, also gave College Point its name. Here's the story.

In late summer 1835, Rev. Muhlenberg, great-grandson of the founder of the Lutheran Church in America, purchased a tract of land of about one hundred acres in the township due north of Flushing in Queens, NY, the location commonly called Strattonport. Using his own financial resources and those of a few other equally disposed individuals, his plan was to erect a college there to educate young men for ministry in the Episcopal church. Scheduled to open its doors in 1837, the financial panic that was crippling both the nation and his investors put the project in jeopardy. A much diminished version of the college named for St. Paul, was opened in 1837, but never truly got off the ground. The site on which St. Paul's College was erected came to be called College Point.

Muhlenberg went on to spend the majority of his eighty years in ministerial service. During the Civil War years he played a significant role in the building of a hospital in New York City to care for the wounded streaming back from the various theaters of the war. The hospital named for St. Luke, patron of physicians, is still in operation today.

As I'm sure you know, the medal was the work of Victor David Brenner. One hundred bronze copies of the medal were struck for distribution to society members, hospital managers, Bishop Potter and other dignitaries of the Protestant-Episcopal Church. A gold medal was presented to George MacCulloch Miller, president of the hospital and another for Andrew C. Zabriskie, President of the Numismatic and Archaeological Society. Throughout his life Zabriskie, 1853-1916, was a collector of coins and medals, having one of the best collections in the country that included many rare Lincoln medals. He was president of the Society for ten years.

The ANS archives contain a scrapbook of Zabriskie's, with more information on the cornerstone laying ceremonies, as well as the members of the Joint Committee on the Improvement of the United States Coinage. Who can tell us more about that body? -Editor

"Taking a look at the medal it occurred to me to wonder if like MacNeil, who reworked previously used medal designs, did not Brenner harken back to this effort when pondering the Lincoln penny. They are remarkably similar design-wise."

Well, there are some similarities. Of course, the closest predecessors for the obverse were Brenner's Lincoln plaque designs. At Jim's suggestion I reached out to Shawn Tew, author of The Rabbit Hole of the 1909 Wheat Cent. -Editor

"In my research with the archives the current Brenner design of the Lincoln Cent was in fact the third one submitted and it was due to the suggestion of President Taft of a Brenner statue in the White House. Here are the first two sketches submitted for approval. But Brenner being an experienced medalist, he designed all of his medals with the same type of elements in similar arrangements which caused issues when it went to produce the smaller scale coinage."

"The 3rd design is a gigantic leap from the first two sketches. From whence the dramatic change? The left-facing walking figure reminds me of the front-facing St. Gaudens.

"Acknowledged that the Lincoln profile is not the Muhlenberg and the verbiage is not centered on the coin, but the presence of the acanthus frond or maybe wheat sheaf on the right side could have easily been his inspiration for the two sheaves of wheat enclosing the reverse on the Lincoln penny."