Just had another article published in the Journal of the Orders and Medals Society of America. It describes a class of souvenir medals that Pennsylvania National Guardsmen could purchase to commemorate their service. The time frame of this medal was from the 1880's to about 1904. The Guardsman personalized the medal by adding stamped bars which contained details of a mobilization event. Some of these were pretty mundane - attendance at the annual week of military camp, but others were historically significant such as strike and riot duty, inaugural parades, service in the Spanish American War. The example medal used in the article was a 14 bar example covering 6 years of military service at the turn of the 19th century. From clues contained in the bars I was able to identify the specific soldier who had originally purchased the medal.
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