Metals
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (Designer and maker)
Gorham Manufacturing Co. (Maker)
Providence, Rhode Island, United States, North America
1901-1901
Bronze
2017.0043.027.002
Object Number2017.0043.027.002 |
Medal
Metals
American Textile History Museum
Hermon Atkins MacNeil (Designer and maker)
1866-1947
Gorham Manufacturing Co. (Maker)
The Gorham Manufacturing Corporation had several different names during its history.
Providence, Rhode Island, United States, North America
1901-1901
1. Mark; Edge; "GORHAM CO" stamped incuse
2. Mark; Edge; "BRONZE" stamped incuse
3. Inscription; Obverse, legend; "PAN - AMERICAN E[XP]OSITION" in low relief
4. Mark; Obverse, exergue; "HERMON MACNEIL SC" appeas in small letters in low relief
5. Mark; Reverse, on South America; "ERMON MACNEIL" in small letters
world's fair; Textiles; Native American
Bronze
0.13 (H) , 2.5 (Diam)
0.33 (H) , 6.35 (Diam)
This commemorative medal is one of multiples created as premium awards for leading participants in the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York. The designer, a towering figure in American Beaux-Arts sculpture, concentrated his symbolic, monumental imagery to honor the fair's goals and to celebrate American, rather than European, artistic heritage. The obverse features a dynamic nude figure of an allegorical woman (Liberty?) holding a winged globe aloft and striding beside a powerful male bison (for Buffalo). The reverse illustrates the Exposition's celebration of peaceful exchange with symbolic male figures representing the two continents depicted as maps on their spheres. They face each other and clasp opposite ends of feather-adorned peace pipe between them. The man wearing South or Central American regalia is seated cross-legged and the seated man representing North America has a full feather headdress and buckskin clothes with one foot resting on a sheath of arrows.