1914 Silver Medal Smedley-102, The Avery Library

Coin Details

Description

The 1914 Smedley-102 silver medal honors the Avery Library at Columbia University in New York City. The Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, founded in 1890 through a gift from Samuel Putnam Avery in memory of his son Henry Ogden Avery, became the foremost architectural library in the Western Hemisphere. This medal, cataloged as Smedley-102 in the reference on Columbia University medals, commemorates a significant moment in the library's institutional history. The obverse features imagery related to the Avery Library or Columbia University's Morningside Heights campus, where the university had relocated from its original downtown location in 1897. The library's collection, which grew to encompass architectural drawings, photographs, and rare books spanning centuries of building design, was essential to the training of generations of American architects. The reverse carries commemorative inscriptions with the Smedley catalog number providing attribution. Silver medals from early twentieth-century American universities occupy a specialized niche in numismatics, documenting the institutional development of higher education during a period of rapid expansion. Columbia University, chartered as King's College in 1754, was among the oldest and most prestigious universities in the nation, and its medallic traditions reflected both its colonial heritage and its ambitions as a modern research institution. The Avery Library continues to operate today as the largest architectural library in the world.

Rarity Notes

University commemorative medals in silver are typically produced in small quantities for presentation to donors, faculty, and distinguished guests. Smedley-102 is a specialized Columbia University reference.

Cross References

PCGS #948443; Smedley-102; Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University