Artwork Details
- Title
- Woodrow Wilson Presidential Inaugural Medal
- Artist
- Date
- 1917
- Location
- Not on view
- Dimensions
- 2 in. (5.1 cm)
- Credit Line
- Gift of the James F. Dicke Family
- Mediums Description
- gold
- Keywords
- Occupation — political — president
- Portrait male — Wilson, Woodrow
- Ceremony — civic — inauguration
- Object Number
- 2010.64.3
Artwork Description
The threat of American involvement in World War I and the high cost war would entail led the 1917 Inaugural Committee to cut back on the number of medals produced to commemorate President Wilson's second inauguration. R. Harris and Company struck only three gold medals, one silver (for the artist), and an unknown quantity of bronze medals, which the committee did not authorize. Designer Darrell Crain's medal shows President Wilson soberly in profile, an expression well suited to the international situation he and the country faced. The committee members later wrote that Crain's medals were "beautiful in both design and character, and the work of the artist well merited our recommendation." (Neil MacNeil, The President's Medal, 1789-1977, 1977)