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Award

Object number2008.51.1 a,b

Date2008

OriginPittsburgh, PA

Credit LineHeinz History Center Collection

DescriptionCircular metal with attached red, white, and blue neck ribbon. Blue leather storage box with hinged lid.Dimensions(a) Width: ~2.5 ; Length: 18.5
(b) Height: 1.125 ; W: 3.5 ; L: 4.625
InscriptionsEmbossed on front: "SENATOR JOHN HEINZ HISTORY CENTER / MEDAL OF INNOVATION"; History Center logo in center.

Engraved on reverse: "SENATOR JOHN HEINZ / HISTORY CENTER / PITTSBURGH 250 / HISTORY MAKERS GALA / FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2008 / SELMA BURKE, PHD."
Historical NotesMedal of Innovation posthumously awarded to Selma Burke at the History Center's History Makers Award Dinner in 2008. Burke passed away in 2005, and because a family member could not be found to accept the medal on her behalf, it was added to the museum collection. Selma Burke was an African American artist who designed the relief sculpture rendering of President Franklin D. Roosevelt which appears on the dime. In 1968, she founded the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Burke was also one of the first recipients of the Heinz History Center's History Makers Award, in 1992. She died of cancer in 1995 in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Related person Selma Burke PhD (1900 - 1995)

Related institution Senator John Heinz History Center

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