great chicago fire "souvenir" medal struck from salvaged bronze bell of osdel-designed city hall (1853)

i stumbled across a rather interesting and historically-important artifact the other week in the form of a pocket-sized "souvenir" medal, representing the first anniversary of the disastrous conflagration known simply as the "great chicago fire" of 1871.

the unique and diminutive artifact is commonly referred as the "chicago fire medal" according to multiple museums and other institutions that have one in their collection. the thick 50 mm medal resembles an oversized coin consisting of salvaged bronze metal from chicago's city hall bell.

the building that held the bell was chicago's fourth city hall, constructed in 1853 by chicago's first architect, john m. osdel. the two-story classically inspired cupola-crowned edifice stood in the center of the block bounded by randolph, clark, washington and la salle streets - the sight of all future court houses. it was bell that hung high up in the cupola that sounded the alarm of the fire, until the building itself was consumed.

on october 9th at 2:20am, when city hall was ablaze, the heavily ornamented and domed rooftop cupola collapsed, sending the massive bronze bell crashing down into the rubble. an image of a man posing inside the mangled bell resting on the floor surrounded by limestone foundation walls that once supported city hall was made into a period stereoview card. it has been said that witnesses reported hearing the "crash" from a mile away.

shortly after the fire was contained and rebuilding commenced, the city retrieved the badly damaged bell and placed it in storage for a few months before auctioning it off to thomas b. bryan of the fidelity repository. bryan reserved a small portion of the bell to fashion into an alarm for his own firm, then sold the rest to h. s. everhart & company. h. s. everhart in turn, melted the remainder of the bell down, and recast it into several commemorative souvenirs, with the most popular (at the time) being small replicas of the original bell. each of these small bells were accompanied by certificates of authenticity, signed by the members of the chicago board of public works. additional souvenirs included miniature fire helmets and the "fire medals."

the circular-shaped fire medal contains a finely executed (obverse) portrayal of the city in flames, with an angel holding a torch and sword in flight over fort dearborn, which was a united states military fort built on the edge of the chicago river in 1803. a large portion of the fort was destroyed in a fire that occurred during the 1850's and what was left of its outer walls were later completely destroyed by the great chicago fire. the text below reads: "chicago oct 8-9 1871, / fort dearborn chico / 1812."

the reverse contains a centrally located winged phoenix (a mythical sacred bird that lives as long as five hundred years and is then ignited by the sun's rays. after its body is consumed by flames, another phoenix emerges from the ashes) rising from the flames amid smoke surrounded by the words: "made from chicago court house bell / semper resugens."

note: all images of the coin recently obtained and later photographed in the studio, are found in the image gallery at the end of this post. 

the c. 1872 (one year anniversary) bronze fire medal was fabricated in new york by william e. barber, who worked as a die engraver in london before immigrating with his family to boston in 1852. he was hired by the gorham company as a die engraver for ornamental embossing of silver plate. barber was later hired as the assistant engraver at the united states mint in philadelphia in 1865 and was promoted to head engraver in 1869.

according to some sources, 500 of these particular medals (struck in 1872) were distributed, presumably by h. s. everhart & company, with barber as the fabricator (the artist's name is found on the coin). one example (see pictures below) contains a silver-plated finish with the original presentation case.