"No Competent Die Cutters In This Country" - - A School for Die-Cutting

1630Boston

Some Harsh words - "They were of opinion, as we are informed, that no competent die- cutters could be found in this country".
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"A NEW DEPARTURE"

Hydrant

Things haven't changed much......try to find a competent tool and die maker now.....you'll need.....GOOD LUCK.

ReadyFireAim

Near the end....

"Skillful and artistic modeling, adapted to the effect which is sought"..."No technical instruction can avail to create art."

What I'm getting from what he's saying is that you can't snap a photo, render the image in 3 dimensions & burn it into a die with a laser and expect something esthetically pleasing.

I agree. A careful examination of many old coins will reveal impossible proportions like a Barby doll.
They are, however, quite stunning.

1630Boston

The school opened in January of 1901, with one instructor, Charles Pike (who was identified as a student of Augustus Saint-Gaudens), and two students. Its official title was the cumbersome “School for Coin and Medal Designing and Die-Cutting, under the joint direction of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society and the National Academy of Design.” By all accounts, this first, abbreviated session (lasting from January through May) was a success. By March, Zabriskie was able to speak of his “especial pride and satisfaction” in the success of the school. And the Society’s Executive Committee boasted that the school had “attracted much attention among those who feel an interest in the improvement of medallic art in this country.”

Proponents of the school had reason to be pleased. For instance, although only two students were in attendance when the session started, by the end of the session in May there were seven—close to the eight-to-ten-student range targeted in the exploratory committee’s report. In addition, costs for this first session were only $200—significantly less than anticipated. An enthusiastic Langdon even offered $100 as a prize for “the best work done in the school, to be awarded at the close of the school year” in May. Langdon would repeat this prize for each of the school’s four remaining years.

Thus, as the school’s first session concluded, the officers of the ANS could correctly think that they might actually succeed in their attempt to create an “American school” of die-making.

johnny9434

An interesting write up, cool

1630Boston

Despite the good feelings, however, there were problems that became increasingly evident, especially an inability to hire enough instructors and recruit enough students. For instance, a chronic problem with the school was the Society’s inability to locate enough qualified instructors, in particular ones trained in die-sinking. As originally envisioned, the school would commence operations with two instructors, but only one could be located. And while the management committee would later comment that Pike’s performance was “altogether satisfactory,” they lamented that “he does not profess to teach” die-sinking. As a result, during that first abbreviated session of 1901, coursework had been limited to modeling and designing in clay.

Victor D. Brenner, Brenner taught at the school during its second year. (ANS Archives)
To correct this deficiency, after the abbreviated 1901 school year concluded, the ANS laid off Pike and hired the noted medalist Victor Brenner to begin teaching when classes resumed in the fall of 1901. As Langdon later explained: “Mr. Brenner’s appointment in Mr. Pike’s stead was due only to a desire on the part of our Committee to provide instruction in die-sinking, as well as in the preparation of designs in a proper form from which to cut dies, etc.” For unexplained reasons, however, Brenner only lasted one year—at the end of the 1901-1902 school year he resigned, effectively forcing the ANS to rehire the previously terminated Pike.

ReadyFireAim

@1630Boston said:
To correct this deficiency, after the abbreviated 1901 school year concluded, the ANS laid off Pike and hired the noted medalist Victor Brenner

The 1st was a student of St.Gaudens & the 2nd a student of Rodin.
I'm suspecting today's coin artists are a tiny bit outclassed.

1630Boston

After Pike’s return, the Committee briefly had hopes of locating a second instructor (Pike thought he knew of a die-sinker who would be willing to serve), but, by January 1904, they acknowledged that their attempts had been in vain, “owing to the unwillingness of practical die-sinkers to teach their art, because of the fear of competition from graduated students of the School.” “The problem,” they continued, “is to find a man willing to teach and sufficiently elevated in mind to understand that the instructor of this class is founding an ‘American School’ which should eventually be an honor to the United States; not a simple ‘trade competition,’ dangerous to foreign-born workmen.”

A second problem was the persistent lack of students. Although the management committee had set a modest goal for the first year, presumably they expected the student population to increase substantially. As a result, the committee made additional modifications (in addition to hiring a new instructor) for the 1901-1902 session. For instance, in an effort to increase the popularity of the school when it reopened under Brenner’s instructorship in the fall of 1901, a new course was also added—Instruction in the Designing and Modelling of Ornamental Decoration and Artistic Jewelry—“as it was thought that this would tend to attract pupils who might, later, direct their attention to the Medallic branch.” In addition, courses that had previously been held in the day were now conducted in the evening, which the committee hoped would be more convenient for potential students. Their hope was not realized: only six students attended the 1901-1902 session, and only seven attended the 1903-1904 session. For the school’s final session, in 1904-1905, the number had risen to nine—slightly larger, but nothing substantial.

ReadyFireAim

From what I understand, die-sinking really changed after the introduction of this pantograph in 1907.
(earlier versions had been used since 1836 but the Janvier was a huge advancement)

1630Boston

Demise of the School
As 1905 began, Langdon reported at the Society’s annual meeting that classes had begun once again at the school, with nine students in attendance and “a most promising outlook.” Langdon’s assessment, unfortunately, proved to be overly optimistic. The school’s chief sponsor, Zabriskie, had resigned from the presidency in December 1904, after his ill-advised attempt to merge the ANS with the New-York Historical Society had been defeated. And by May 1905, Langdon himself would quit both the school’s management committee and the ANS. Thus, by the end of May, as the Society’s new president, Archer Huntington, was about to meet with the Society’s Executive Committee for the first time, the school’s two chief backers were nowhere to be seen.

“We had a delightful evening,” Bauman Belden later wrote of that first meeting between Huntington and the Executive Committee. “[Huntington] seemed much pleased with things.” Not surprisingly, the new administration had new priorities—locating suitable facilities and invigorating the Society’s limited publications program were high on the new president’s agenda. Maintaining the die-cutting school—a struggling initiative of his predecessor—was not. As a result, at that very first meeting the Executive Committee decided to discontinue the school. As the Executive Committee simply reported later, “it was felt that the results obtained were not sufficient to warrant the expense of keeping it up.” Unspent donations were applied to pay off the school’s existing expenses; the remainder was added to the Society’s permanent funds for the purchase of coins and medals.

The School for Medal Design and Die-Cutting was an honorable, albeit unsuccessful, effort to stimulate the medallic arts in the United States. In a way, it represents one of the last major projects of the ANS prior to the infusion of Huntington’s funds—funds upon which the Society would rely for the next five decades to support its major initiatives. The school was, however, only part of the Society’s efforts to support the medallic arts in America. In fact, J. Sanford Saltus, the one member of the school’s management committee who remained active with the ANS, would eventually become the leading proponent of the Society’s other efforts to support American medallic art in the coming decades.

1630Boston

great info @ReadyFireAim

1630Boston