Emelia Lehmann is a Boston-based researcher and cultural heritage professional with experience in fine art and cultural resource management, disaster response, and heritage planning. She was a 2023–2025 Presidential Management Fellow with the National Park Service and a 2023 MESDA Summer Institute Fellow, and she has held positions with PURE Insurance, the Terra Foundation for American Art, and the Smart Museum of Art, among others. Most recently, her writing on American art, history, and material culture has appeared in the Journal of Early Southern Decorative Arts and the New Art Examiner.
Introduction When most people think of medals, they think of portable discs often suspended from a ribbon and made of metal (frequently gold, silver, or bronze) that commemorate a deed, an event, or an achievement. Revolutionary War veteran David Steele’s medal was neither circular nor metal, embossed nor engraved. He received it not from the […]