Over Thanksgiving my father gave me a plastic bag full of stuff he had accumulated. He found most of the items on his daily walks over the years. The pewter medallion next to the red elephant is a souvenir from the 1892 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The eagle topped brass medal on the center left is the Filli Veteranorum, or Sons of Union Civil War Veterans, medal from 1881.
I gave him the coin from the U.S. Coast Guard Barque Eagle. The Eagle was launched in 1936 as the German training ship Horst Wessel. My great-grandfather was one of the contractors that built it and as a child my father was aboard the ship as it was being built. The United States took possession of the ship after World War II and it now serves as a Coast Guard training vessel. The Eagle will be docked in a port near you (if you live near a North Atlantic port town) sometime next summer.
An annotated photo is on Flickr as is a double-sized version.
ah the family heirlooms....
Posted by: judy | 01 December 2010 at 09:18 PM
well, your dad surely gave you a lot of things. Something like "Collector's Edition" :). That necklace with the sword looks like an item from a RPG game I swear !
Posted by: Allison | 02 December 2010 at 04:07 AM