M059
Bronze
44 mm (1-3/4”), 56 grams
HISTORY: Carl Paul Jennewein (1890–1978) was an outstanding German-born American sculptor who studied at the Art Students League of New York in 1933. At the same time, he was engaged in the creation of the pediment sculpture for the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
REVERSE: A tall, muscular, young man stands naked, against the backdrop of a world map, holding a sword in his right hand and a palm frond in his left. In his notes, Jennewein did not illuminate the symbolism of these two items.
The three background references, however, are testaments to Monroe’s achievements. While Minister to France (under Thomas Jefferson’s presidency), Monroe was instrumental in parleying a deal with Napoleon that resulted in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. In his first term as president, Monroe, with his Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, crafted the Florida Purchase Treaty (Adams–Onís Treaty) in 1819 whereby Spain ceded Florida to the United States. At the beginning of his second term, Monroe negotiated the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Bowing to the politics of the times, Missouri, previously a territory of the Louisiana Purchase, was granted statehood as a slave state in return for Maine being admitted as a free state.
OBVERSE: James Monroe (1758‒1831) became America’s fifth president in 1816, winning re-election in 1820. At his second inaugural address, he outlined what was to become known as the Monroe Doctrine, “the disengagement of the European countries from affairs of the Americas,” to quote from the enclosed pamphlet. The top of the medal reads, “THE HALL OF FAME FOR GREAT AMERICANS AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY.” Below, and to the right, is a hand-sketched date “19©67.”
EDGE: The bottom edge is engraved “MEDALLAC ART CO. N.Y BRONZE.”
