Medal

Sept. 15, 1857

Maker

Charles Cushing Wright (1796-1854)

Measurements

1/8 in x 2 in (dia)

Materials

Silver

Credit Line

Historic Odessa Foundation

Accession Number

2014.1

Inscription

"PENNSYLVANIA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. / VIRTUE LIBERTY INDEN [INDEPENDENCE] / C.C.WRIGHT. F." is in relief on the front of the medal, and “TO / DANIEL CORBIT / for the best / Peaches / Sep. 15th, 1857” is on the back.

Comments

The silver medal obverse (front) shows a child presenting a basket of fruit to the seated figure of Demeter, goddess of the harvest.  She leans on a shield with the arms of the State of Pennsylvania and a ribbon with the state motto.  The medal designer's name is below the composition.

The reverse has a floral wreath around the center inscription to Daniel Corbit "for the best Peaches," and bearing the date of September 15, 1857.  The date on this medal is more than three years after Wright, the die-maker, died (on June 7, 1854; he is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in New York), indicating that either the Horticultural Society stockpiled unengraved silver medals or they controlled the dies from which this medal was struck.

By 1857, Daniel Corbit had closed his tan yard and was engaged in growing peaches on six acres of his land.  The medal is in its deep blue silk velvet and cardboard presentation case.