Letter of the Day: February 14

A subsequent letter from the AMA said they do not have the die but have no objection to having another medal struck. There is no reply (that I found) to a letter in the folder from Davis to Tiffany about the die. I couldn’t find any mention of this medal in Emu.


14 Feb. 1942
Secretary
American Medical Association
Chicago, Ill.

Dear Doctor:-

We have a very comprehensive collection of Medical Medals at this Museum and are endeavoring to add to it.

There was issued by your association sometime in 1914 a medal to Gen. William C. Gorgas. This medal is described and listed in Storer’s catalog of Medical Medals and was made by Tiffany Co., New York. As it was of gold it was the only one probably struck.

It is assumed that the dies are still in possession of the maker, Tiffany, or else were turned over to your office. In any event would it be possible to have a gilt bronze replica made for our collection?

So far as known this is the only medal of Gorgas and as he was our Surgeon General we feel that if possible this medal should be in our collection.

Any information concerning this will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Harry A. Davis

Maj. USA Ret.
Hist. Sect.

Have you ever heard of the Isthmian Canal?

My education is sorely lacking. I never heard the Panama Canal referred to as the Isthmian Canal, but saw a reference to it today when I went through a truly fascinating set of lantern slides from the William Gorgas era of the Canal. Here are two of several dozen that date from about 1902 to 1914. I wish I could scan them all.

This first one is a lovely hand-tinted lantern slide of Spanish laborers.






















This second one is a chart (table?) showing a marked decrease in fatalities from various diseases, supposedly when sanitary measures were put in place- such as covering food, digging drainage ditches, oiling still bodies of water, etc. Note the Americans giving themselves a big old pat on the back.