"Political Correctness" in exonumia? Back in the 1800's?
ZoidMeister
Posts: 3,021 ✭✭✭✭✭
"Political Correctness" - that's a relatively recent development, right? Everyone knows that it just recently raised it's head in society, right? I mean, we are all accustom to seeing politically INCORRECT medals and tokens from our own periods of hardship between the 1830's through the 1860's and our civil war. Political correctness certainly didn't exist in the mid to late 1800's, right?
Au contraire . . . .
In my "alternate" exonumia addiction, I recently ran across a clear example of "political correctness" in action. These examples date to the latter half of the 1800's. This also gives me a chance to "show off" yet another addition to my religious medal collection.
Founded in 1847 in Great Britain, there was a social committee established to provide primary education for the poor Catholic families living in England at that time. Seeing as the Catholic Church was not an officially sanctioned religion in England, Catholic families tended to be outcast and looked down upon, their jobs being the most reviled of the working class. These families were poor, dirt poor . . . therefore The Catholic Poor School Committee therefore, was founded to help educate their children.
However "political correctness" begins to creep into British society, possibly seeded by our own civil reformation struggle some 20 years earlier, and in 1888, the The Catholic Poor School Committee was renamed, the Catholic School Committee.
How did I discover this tidbit of trivia? Well, the change has been minted into the committee's "good conduct" medals for history to discover.
This medal, designed and engraved by L. Wiener, was in use and distributed by the committee between its inception in 1847 up until the name change in 1887.
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This medal, mimicking the earlier design of Wiener, designed and engraved by T. Leighton, was in use and distributed by the committee between 1888 and 1905, when they changed their name.
Note the dropping of the word "POOR."
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It was this change in the wording of the reverse of this award that got me researching.
I have yet to find any similar medals that were in use and / or distributed after the second name change in 1905 to the Catholic Education Council.
Z
Busy chasing Carr's . . . . . woof!
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