Skip to main content

So Many Questions: Questioning the Components and Origin of My CAA Medal

 

Place of Origin?

My object could have been made in variety of countries. Since I have no knowledge as to where CAA organizers purchase their medals to bestow to athletes, I will choose the U.S. as its imagined place of origin. From my knowledge, the elements comprised in a medal often turn from liquidated states to hardened structures. For example: When a blacksmith makes weaponry, tools, and other items which require smelting, they must use an element of choice to place within a fiery furnace, which will then be withdrawn to craft a specific shape. The process is repeated until the desired shape of an object is created. Though I do not think that my medal would require the same exact process to craft as that of a sword or a hardware tool, I do believe that steps to craft either a sword or a medal might be quite similar. I will also add in the fact that today, humans are assisted by technology to craft objects like my medal, so its production might be a lot less taxing on the human body than it would be without the assistance of machinery.

I believe that because the CAA needs to mass produce medals to give to athletes, there may be a stock of them made every year in which the athletic competitions take place. In my case, sense I won the medal in 2019 and in the case of convenience, I believe the companies that distribute medals like mine make them during or around the time in which the medals are to be awarded.

Questions:

Having hypothesized the ability of medal-making companies to produce medals like mine on such short notice, I have three main questions:

1.     Which companies are known for making athletic medals?

2.     Are there any companies based in the U.S. who cater to organizations like CAA?

3.     What medals (Olympic, collegiate, military, scholastic, etc.) crafted from?

 

Research Aftermath:

Though I could not find the answer as to what elements were used to craft my medal, I did find some very educational information on the Encyclopedia Britannica website concerning my third question. Here, John Graham Pollard discusses the common elements found within commemorative medals and even lays out a brief history of medal crafting and consumption. Graham denotes that the “finer” kinds of medals are made of gold, silver, bronze, and lead[1]. Graham’s inclusion of medal elements falls in line with what I believe a military or Olympic medal would be crafted from. In the case of my collegiate medal, I must continue to research exactly what it is made from. Another interesting factor added in Graham’s article is that machine cutters which came about in the 19th century eliminated hand cutting while taking away from “medalist work”[2]. Graham’s observation of the ability of technology to take away from the originality of a medalist on his/her medal is very pertinent to conversations of product analysis in which students within Temple University's Material Culture course have familiarity. Since my thesis revolves around Black WWI soldiers such as those who fought in New York's 369th Regiment, I would love to look into the process of making medals in which members of this regiment were awarded by the French military (the Croix De Guerre).

                                         Croix De Guerre: WWI [3]


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fortitude, Community, and Vision: the Black Museum Movement from the 1960s to the Present

  [1] In her book From Storefront to Monument: Tracing the Public History of the Black Museum Movement , Andrea A. Burns documents the endeavors of African Americans to establish Black-owned museums in stride and motivated by certain sentiments of the Black Power movement of the 1960s. Focusing primarily on four of the first African American museums in America named The DuSable Museum of African American History, The International Afro-American Museum (IAM), The Anacostia Neighborhood Museum (ANM), and the African American Museum of Philadelphia (AAMP), Burns illustrates how these museums were created and run by African Americans. Some of the historical figures in Burns’ narrative include Margaret (Black artist) and Charles Burroughs, Dr. Charles Wright, and museum director John Kinard who out of grassroot movements and extreme effort formed and oversaw operations they saw fit for reconstructing the representations and presentations of African American history. Burns allows her reade
3 comments
Read more

From Distant Comfort to Submersion: The Morphing of Historical Consciousness and Historical Authenticity in America

     [1] [2] M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska’s book History Comes Alive: Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s is a refreshing and perceptive examination of the changing manners in which history was taught, depicted, reenacted, and reflected upon in America from the 1950s to the 1970s. Rymsza-Pawlowska shows these shifts by presenting to her readers America’s earlier traditions to deliver history in a more distance and purely informational manner and America’s change in method which would incite emotions and provide more interactive ways to partake in historical settings [3] . What I found particularly striking and informative in her book was her inclusion of American television series which showed early reluctance to interact deeply with the past and the move of American television productions to present a more involved and sincere narrative of American history in later decades. For instance, she provides the ways in which early American shows such as The Twilight Zone would often
2 comments
Read more

Introduction

  My name is Jeanette Dianne Bendolph and I am an alumna of the University of Delaware. During my undergraduate career, I earned a Bachelor of Arts in History and minors in Museum Studies and Africana Studies. My public history background includes my experience creating a children’s program, curation and creation of an exhibition, and participation in a collegiate history symposium. For my children’s program, I was required to document past Delawarean laws (18 th century to the 20 th century) concerning school desegregation, immigration, and eminent domain in order for kids to compare how citizens reacted towards these laws in the past vs. today. My summer research entailed the political and social climate of Victorian Britain for its Black citizens. The exhibition I created which was placed in the New Castle Historical Society of New Castle, Delaware in 2019 documented the activities which stimulated early childhood development in young New Castle Citizens of the 19 th and 20 th c
1 comment
Read more