TitleTheodore N. Vail Memorial Medal
Artist
Adolph Alexander Weinman
(1870 - 1952)
Date1921
MediumPlaster
DimensionsOverall (Framed relief): 30 3/4 × 30 × 2 in.
Other (Relief): 1 × 24 5/8 in.
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Gift of the artist's son, 1953
Object number136-S
Label TextThis plaster relief is the model for a medal designed by Weinman in 1921 for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The medal featured a portrait of Theodore Newton Vail on one side and an allegorical group of three figures on the other. According to an article in Long Island Life written shortly after the medal was designed, it was intended for presentation "to those in the ranks of the Bell System who perform outstanding acts which are illustrative of Mr. Vails' Public Service ideals, especially accomplishments of direct benefit to fellow human beings." Whitney Allen wrote that the medal blended "the classical note with so modern a thing from man's hand as an electric cable whose message-carrying power is fittingly represented by the attribute of the wings of Mercury."Casts of the medal were made by the Medallic Art Company, New York, and a version was exhibited at the 17th Annual Exhibition of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy in 1923.
Theodore N. Vail (1845-1920) became interested in telegraphy in his youth and was a pioneer in the development and marketing of the telephone. His ascendency to the post of general manager of the new Bell Telephone Company in 1878 marked the beginning of a long and distinguished career and, in the establishment of a national telephone system, his work was second only to that of Alexander Graham Bell.
n.d.
n.d.
1780