Jeannette Medal

Jeannette Medal
Silver version
Awarded by the Secretary of the Navy in the Name of the 51st United States Congress
Type	Commemorative medal
Eligibility	Officers and men of the Jeannette Expedition
Awarded for	Perils encountered
Status	Obsolete
Statistics
Established	September 30, 1890
Total awarded	8 gold, 25 silver
Posthumous awards	16
Precedence
Next (higher)	unknown
Next (lower)	unknown

The Jeannette Medal is a Congressional Gold Medal awarded in 1890 to officers and crew of the Jeannette Expedition. Silver versions where also struck.

The statute awarding the medal (51st Congress, 26 Stat. 552) promoted Chief Engineer George W. Melville one grade in rank and read:

That suitable medals be struck at the United States Mint in commemoration of the perils encountered by the officers and men of the said Jeannette Arctic Expedition, and as an expression of the high esteem in which the Congress holds their services in the said expedition; and that one of the said medals be presented to each of the survivors of said expedition, and one to the heirs of each of the deceased members.

8 gold and 25 silver medals were struck, in decoration form (unusual for a Congressional Gold Medal, which are normally presented as a non-portable table medal) and distributed as follows:^[1]

Gold
Engineer-in-Chief Melville
Naturalist Raymond L. Newcomb
wife of Lt. Cdr. Long
father of Lt. Chipp
wife of Lt. Danenhower
brother of ship's surgeon James Ambler
administrator of the estate of ice pilot Dunbar
brother of journalist and meteorologist Collins

Silver (those reported deceased in italics)
James H. Bartlett
George W. Boyd
John Cole
Adolph Dressler
H.H. Erickson
C.A. Gortz
Nelse Iverson
P.E. Jackson
H.H. Kaack
A.G. Kuehne
John Lauterbach
H.W. Leach
Walter Lee
F.E. Marsen
W.F.C. Ninderman
Louis P. Noros
Ah Sam
Charles Tong Sing
Edward Star
Alfred Sweetman
H.D. Warren
Henry Wilson
Alexy (no first name provided)
Aninguin (no first name provided)
Shawell (no first name provided)

It is unclear what precedence the medal took on a military uniform, though an undated photograph shows Melville wearing it in the senior position.^[2]

Additional reading

Jeannette Medal Honors Arctic Seamen

References

1. "Medals for the Jeannette Expediton". The Army and Navy Journal 30 (8): 117. October 15, 1892.
2. "Undated photograph of George W. Melville by Matthew Brady". www.museumsyndicate.com. Retrieved 2015-09-10.