Inauguration Medal of President Garfield 1881

Curator: What a stern face! He certainly projects an air of Victorian authority and...almost mournful determination. Editor: Indeed. What we have here is the Inauguration Medal of President Garfield, created in 1881 by Charles E. Barber. It's rendered in bronze and, fitting its era, exemplifies Neoclassical style, harking back to the ideals of republican Rome. Curator: I immediately read his profile as classically Roman. It's that deliberate invocation of the Roman Senator type--noble brow, strong jaw--meant to associate him with those virtues of leadership and gravitas. And, of course, his beard follows suit. But does it mask something as well? A kind of vulnerability beneath the bronze? Editor: Certainly, the inauguration medal served as a tool of political branding, intended to solidify public perception. The profile portrait was the preferred symbolic language. The idealization through a classical lens connected him to a historical legacy of power and stability, necessary gestures for a relatively young nation, and it was distributed to signal an aura of permanence. Curator: So interesting that portraiture so often becomes an act of nation-building through symbolic inheritance! I think that medals such as this, though seemingly simple, actually become touchstones that crystallize historical memory, encoding both individual and collective identity through familiar and accessible symbolic form. It almost assumes the place of an icon. Editor: I agree entirely, especially considering what happened shortly after this medal was struck; the medals transformed from a celebration into something quite different. They are no longer simply commemorative, but became mementos that marked Garfield’s brief presidency. He died within a year due to complications following an assassination attempt. Therefore the medal also embodies the political instability that marked that era. Curator: A somber destiny, but also strangely appropriate considering how the solemn iconography foreshadows such loss. Ultimately, such artworks leave an enduring impression of this figure and period. Editor: It seems to me we see within it an entire narrative condensed into a circular, portable, bronze token. History, identity, aspiration and tragedy - all carefully shaped and circulated.