Medals of Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition of 1895


1895 Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition


Above Two Medals: COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION Silver plated, 2 inch diameter. Reverse BIRD'S EYE VIEW of COTTON STATES AND INTERNATION EXPOSITION, ATLANTA GA. Features the birds eye view with Massonnet Editor along right rim. Near bottom OPENS SEPTEMBER 19TH CLOSES DECEMBER 31ST 1895. Obverse features the Exposition Seal: rising Phoenix coming form flames and 1895 on top and 1865 on bottom. Around outside COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION and the dates at bottom SEPT 18TH TO DEC 31ST. Atlanta exposition medal. Signed: Massonnet - Paris

Above. HK-268 COTTON STATES SO CALLED DOLLAR. Gilt bronze 34mm. Obverse: Picture of Henry Grady, across the top OFFICIAL SOUVENIR MEDAL and Henry W. Grady across the bottom. Reverse: Across the top COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION. In middle 1895 over rising phoenix then 1865 over a cotton bales, two hands shaking. Bust of Henry W. Grady of the Atlanta Constitution, struck by the Philadelphia Mint.


Above. Obverse is Bird's Eye View of exposition with COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION across the top and Atlanta GA with dates at bottom. Reverse has nice large Liberty Bell and across the top the words PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND UNTO ALL THE INHABITANS THEREOF. Image provided by Michael at Cherokee Coins, Alpharetta GA



Image provided by Jonathan Brecher
HK-269 - (Not Shown) Aluminum. HK-269a - Above medal. Brass.Obverse: Some as last. Obverse: same as above. Reverse: Reverse: Edifice; below Administration / Building; above, around Cotton States and International Exposition

Woman's Building Medal - Aluminum. 37mm. Obverse: Exposition Seal: rising Phoenix coming form flames and 1895 on top and 1865 on bottom. Around outside COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION and the dates at bottom SEPT 18TH TO DEC 31ST. Reverse: Edifice; below Woman’s Building; above, around Cotton States and International Exposition; at bottom border, microscopic S. D. Childs & Co. Chicago - HK-271


Above: About dime size in silver. Obverse has "To Cotton States Exposition Atlanta GA 1895 and on reverse there is a liberty bell with words LIBERTY BELL around top and July 4, 1776 at bottom under bell.

Frederick Douglass - Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition. 37 mm. Very rare. This aluminum medal is from the 1895 Cotton and Industrial Exposition World's Fair held in Atlanta, Georgia. Has a great relief portrait of Frederick Douglas. Shows the negro building on the reverse.Its made of aluminum.Its uncirculated and prooflike. It also features the Negro Building on the obverse which was the first African American building in an American Exposition.

Buffalo Bill Cody Medal - Souvenir of his Wild Show Show at the 1895 Atlanta Cotton States Exposition. Obtained from an Atlanta collector.

Gold Medal from the Cotton States and International Exposition, Atlanta GA. 2.5 inch diameter. The meals were executed upon a design prepared under the supervision of Mr. Horace Bradley, Chief of the Department of Fine Arts, and were delivered in the Summer of 1896, while the World's Columbian medals, awarded two years earlier, were being delivered. It was produced by medallist Peter L. Krider, Philadelphia. His shop excelled at casting, and was one of the largest medal making firms in the country - commissioned to make award medals for the Centennial Exposition in 1876, New Orleans Expo, and Atlanta Cotton States, and others. They produced exceptional pieces.


Gold plated award medal issued to Live Oak Distillery Co. Medal has been gold plated. Image by Michael at Cherokee Coins, Alpharetta GA


ATLANTA GEORGIA INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION MEDAL 1895- Bronze Prize Medal -6mm thick, 57 mm diameter. On Obv 'Atlanta Georgia USA', Columbia in long chiton, holding a cornucopia filled with fruit in right arm, standing to left: in front of her, a winged wheel, and a small winged genius bearing a tablet inscribed INDUSTRY; in background to the left is the Fine Arts Building. Singed 'PH MARTINY SC NY', this medal is notable as the sole signed work of metallic art by by famous sculpture artist PHILIP MARTINY 1858-1927 whose his baby-like winged cherub has become the emblem of generations. "With it's exuberant allegorical design and lovely modeling, Martin's Cotton States Exposition medal exemplifies the high Beaux-Arts style of decorative sculpture." The reverse has a palm leaf, the American eagle, a cotton plant and the legend 'COTTON STATES AND INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION AWARDED TO WERNER BEHME (who was an inventor) ATLANTA GEORGIA USA MDCCCXCV'. The meals were executed upon a design prepared under the supervision of Mr. Horace Bradley, Chief of the Department of Fine Arts, and were delivered in the Summer of 1896, while the World's Columbian medals, awarded two years earlier, were being delivered. About six thousand exhibits were examined. The Awards Committee awarded a total of 1,573 medals including Gold 634 - The gold medal cost the receipt $125 to purchase and is solid 14k go ld.. Silver 444 - Costs the prize winner $60 at the time. Bronze 495
1895 COTTON STATES EXPO BADGES



Above image provided by Civil War Badges ++++++ Above photo of Liberty Bell at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia 1895 Cotton States Expo
1895 COTTON STATES SOUVENIR TICKES

The Atlanta world's fair produced only two ornate souvenir tickets, both extremely rare today. The first was for Atlanta Day, which was Thursday, November 28, a well attended event because of local pride and interest. Much less well attended, because it took place on Christmas Day, was Collier Day, which honored the present and director general of the fair. Because of its smaller attendance, the Collier Day ticket is the scarcer of the two souvenir tickets from the Atlanta Expo. This ticket for Collier Day measures approximately 3 7/8" X 2 1/4". The face of the ticket is printed in blue ink on ivory or off-white card stock with the facsimile signatures of E. A. Felder, Chief of the Department of Admissions, and C. A. Collier, President and Director General. The back of the ticket has the seal of Atlanta with its phoenix rising from the ashes, also printed in blue. The serial number is printed in red.
The 1895 Cotton States and International Exposition was held at the current Piedmont Park in Atlanta, Georgia. It is most remembered for the Atlanta Compromise speech given by Booker T. Washington on September 18, 1895. The Cotton States and International Exposition runs from September to December featuring six thousand exhibits and attracting eight hundred thousand visitors. Booker T. Washington made the principal address at the grand opening with his "Five Fingers" speech. Other attractions include electrically-powered boats, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, the Phoenix Wheel (a Ferris Wheel), and a midway. In late September Charles Francis Jenkins demonstrated an early movie projector called the Phantascope with their American debut in an exhibit called Living Pictures. The process projected film onto a screen and was unlike Thomas Edison’s Kinetoscope which limited viewing to one person at a time. After the exposition closes, Thomas Edison buys the rights to Phantoscope, renames the process Vitascope, and claims its invention. The great American band master John Phillip Sousa composed his famous march, King Cotton for the exposition, and dedicated it to the people of the state of Georgia. The Liberty Bell was brought down to this expo.

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Horace Bradley - In the late nineteenth century a few artists living in Georgia became associated with making illustrations for popular publications. One of the major ones, Horace Bradley, born in Dublin, Georgia, grew up in Atlanta, and soon started drawing for such national newspapers as Frank Leslie's Illustrated Weekly. In 1881 he moved to New York temporarily and drew for New York magazines, especially Harper's Weekly, for which he would become a prominent illustrator. In 1882 and 1883, back in Atlanta, Bradley organized the first loan exhibitions of art in that city, and in 1883 he opened the Atlanta Art School. Around 1886 he left Atlanta again for New York, where he became president of the Art Students League and art editor for Harper's publications. As chief of the fine arts department of the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta in 1895, Bradley organized the art exhibitions shown in the Fine Arts and Woman's Buildings. He died the following year. Above Courtesy of georgiaencyclopedia.org

1895 Atlanta Cotton States and International Exposition