Calendar Medal Relating to Emancipation Day

White, Aaron · for 1863

Some calendar medals reflect American political change. Massachusetts-born Harvard graduate and lawyer Aaron White (1798-1886) played an active role a rebellion that occurred in Rhode Island in the early 1840s and that was designed to make suffrage more widely available. This movement, led by Thomas W. Dorr, failed, and White fled to the small town of New Boston, Connecticut. There he continued to practice law, and, dispairing at the widespread adoption of paper currency and coins made from inexpensive metals, hoarded old coins. During the Civil War, on the occasion of the Emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the rebel states, White designed this calendar medal. The front has seven columns headed by the names of months which begin on the same day of the week – JAN (/) OCT, APR (/) JUL, SEP (/) DEC, JUN, FEB (/) MAR (/) NOV, AUG, and MAY. Months with a number of days different from 31 are underlined. Five rows of numbers below this indicate days of the month from 1 to 7, 8 to 14, 15 to 21, 22 to 28, and 29 to 31. The space left over on the bottom row reads: EQUINOXES (/) MAR.20.SEP.23. The dates of the equinoxes are for 1863. A mark at the top reads: CALENDAR (/) FIG.DAY (/) CHANGE [. . .] YEARLY. Around the rim are dates of historic importance, marked INDEPENDENCE, CONSTITUTION, and EMANCIPATION.