MACO

Because of the sheer size of the MACO collection and archives, a clear and succinct plan is needed to move forward.

The ANS was fortunate to obtain two historic photo archives from the Medallic Art Company: A collection of MACO medal winners and a documentation of the medallic production process inside the MACO facility in 1947-51.

he following essays offer a brief introduction to the medallic arts and MACO. They are, in no way, meant to be comprehensive, but simply give some context to the MACO Archives as a collection, and MACO as an organization.

he United States was derived from and heavily influenced by European precedents. Conscious of this lineage and pained at times to break free from it, US-based medallic artists frequently endeavored to create medals that were emphatically American. This impulse was already present in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) as French artists and engravers worked alongside the nascent country’s leaders to create commemorative medals of the events and commanders involved.

The MACO specimen archive is a collection of PDFs that lists nearly all medals produced by the Medallic Art Company between 1907 and 2013.