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V20 2017 INDEX       E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 20, Number 33, August 13, 2017, Article 6

BOOK: SCHOOLCHILD CERTIFICATES AND MEDALS

In email correspondence this week I learned of a 1994 book that includes information and photographs of medals given to U.S. schoolchildren in the 19th century. It began when I forwarded to E-Sylum contributor John Sallay a blog article from the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. -Editor

Reward of Merit certificate

Referred to as rewards of merit, several hundred examples of these tokens of students' progress and teachers' approval are part of the Dr. Richard Lodish American School Collection, and I have had the opportunity to work with many of them—especially those from the mid-to-late 19th century. While some rewards of merit are medallions and pins, most of these rewards are small pieces of paper with either hand-drawn or printed decoration. Some are elaborately ornamented with illustrations and color, while others are simpler, with only the words "Reward of Merit" and the student's name. While the styles vary, each reward had an important meaning for the student: the recognition of a teacher, approval of parents, and establishment among peers.

To read the complete article, see:
Merited behavior: Rewarding the 19th century schoolchild (http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/merited-behavior)

John Sallay of Boston, MA writes:

I had helped put together the 1994 book mentioned in this blog post, “Rewards of Merit” by Patricia Fenn and Alfred P. Malpa. Al Malpa is a friend who collected mostly paper rewards of merit, so I helped him with the medals part, both the information and the photos. All of the medals (except for one, from Pat Fenn’s family) in that book are in my collection. At the time, it was half mine and half Al’s (with most of those from Rocky Gardiner’s collection), but I bought all of his medals not too long after the book was published.

Dave Bowers helped me arrange for Cathy Dumont to take the photos, so she and I spent an afternoon in the basement of the Bank of Boston building in downtown Boston, where I had a safe deposit box, doing the photography. I learned a LOT about medal photography that day.

The book is still in print. Here is soeme information from the publisher's web site. -Editor

Rewards of Merit cover REWARDS OF MERIT. TOKENS OF A CHILD'S PROGRESS AND A TEACHER'S ESTEEM...
FENN, Patricia and Alfred P. Malpa.
Ephemera Society of America, (1994),

First Edition. oblong quarto, cloth in dust jacket. 224pp. Ephemera Society of America, Item #11632

"Rewards of Merit are significant documents that illustrate attitudes toward religion, education, and achievement: values with which young Americans were inculcated...This book also demonstrates how evolving methods of the American printing arts have been reflected in every aspect of the production of Rewards of Merit...these examples of folk art and calligraphy, nineteenth-century printing through twentieth-century computer graphics, have affected children, parents, teachers..." Profusely illustrated in color, with hundreds of images. With a detailed index and a useful "Directory of Booksellers, Engravers, Printers, Publishers, Stationers and related tradesmen who were involved in the design, production and distribution of Rewards of Merit in the United States."

For more information, or to order, see:
REWARDS OF MERIT. TOKENS OF A CHILD'S PROGRESS AND A TEACHER'S ESTEEM... (https://www.colophonbooks.com/pages/books/11632/patricia-fenn-alfred-p-malpa/rewards-of-merit-tokens-of-a-childs-progress-and-a-teachers-esteem)

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Wayne Homren, Editor

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