Collection Highlights
Broadway, A.T. Stewart Dry Goods Store
Date:
1851
Object Number:
PR.020.FF.28
Medium:
1896 photo-mechanical color reproduction of an engraving
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Museum Collections
Luce Center
J. Fenimore Cooper Award Medal
Object Number:
INV.3694
Date:
1840
Medium:
White metal; leather, wood, silk
Dimensions:
case: 2 1/4 x 2 1/4 x 9/16 in. ( 5.7 x 5.7 x 1.4 cm )
diameter: 2 in. ( 5.1 cm )
Marks:
Inscription: obverse, below bust truncation, at lower center: "R.LOVETT N.Y."
Description:
White metal struck medal with obverse depicting clothed bust of J. Fenimore Cooper facing left; surrounding legend: "THE PERSONIFICATION OF HONOR, TRUTH, AND JUSTUCE." Reverse bears inscription within oak wreath: "TO/J. FENIMORE COOPER,/THE OFFERING/OF A /GRATEFUL HEART/FOR/HIS DISINTERESTED/VINDICATION/OF HIS/BROTHER SAILOR/JESSE D. ELLIOTT." Medal is inset into dark burgundy red square fitted leather case with purple silk velvet interior.
Gallery Label:
James Fenimore Cooper's History of the Navy (1839) was the single most important and influential American naval history throughout the nineteenth century. In his account of the Battle of Lake Erie, Cooper deliberately ignored the dispute between commander Oliver Hazard Perry, and his second in command, Jesse D. Elliott, for which he was attacked by the press and accused in covering Elliott's cowardice. In the lawsuit that followed Cooper won the case by justifying his historiographical method.
Due to ongoing research, information about this object is subject to change.
