Images(2)

Kultur Medal

Period1918

MediumBronze

Dimensions0.13 × 2.5 in. (0.3 × 6.4 cm)

SignedThe medal is signed on the verso "PAUL MANSHIP / C 1918" immediately above the figure of the prone infant. "MEDALLIC ART CO., N.Y." is stamped long the rim edge of the medal.

ClassificationsThe Robert Hartshorne World War I Collection

Credit LineGift of Mary Minturn Adams in memory of her Hartshorne Ancestors, 2018

Object number2018.10.20.13

DescriptionA large circular medal struck in bronze, with the obverse side depicting Kaiser Wilhelm II looking left, wearing the spiked Prussian war helmet, wearing a necklace made of skulls from which dangles the German Cross. A bayonet is depicted at left. Around the rim is the inscription "THE FOE OF A FREE PEOPLES," with "HIS ROSARY" in a small banner below the central image. On the verso, A running German soldier, wearing a spiked war helmet, carries an anguished woman, while beneath the soldier's feet, an infant lays prone. Around the edge of of the scene is the inscription 'KULTUR IN BELGIUM," with "MURDER PILLAGE" in a small banner below. The medal retains its original box of light blue cardboard with a white silk lining. The box lid is stamped "Theodore B. Starr, Inc. / Fifth Avenue and 47th Street / New York."
Curatorial RemarksThe "Kultur" medal by artist Paul Manship is considered the first American wartime medal and was the focus of much controversy at the time of its creation. Sculptor Paul Manship was born in 1885 and first began his artistic career as a painter and illustrator. His color blindness, however, was a handicap, and he turned to sculpture. Manship apprenticed under sculptor Solon Borglum (1868 - 1922), younger brother of Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum. He attended the Art Students League in New York City and later went to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. He was awarded the American Prix de Rome in 1909. Manship worked as a studio assistant to sculptor Isidore Konti (1862 - 1930) and maintained a friendship with portrait artist John Singer Sargent. Manship is perhaps best known for his scupture of Prometheus in the courtyard of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan. His Kultur medal was his personal response to the wartime artwork of such German artists as Karl Goetz, whose 1915 Lusitania medal evoked high emotion. (Please see accession number 2018.10.27) In Manship's medal, Kaiser Wilhelm II is depicted wearing the spiked pickehaube, or Prussian war helmet, a necklace of gruesome skulls around his neck. On the reverse of the medal, Manship has depicted a brutish German soldier in the act of carrying off an anguished Belgian woman, a dead or dying infant beneath his feet. Although the Allied forces used inflammatory propaganda to emphasize the cruel behavior of the German "Huns," the brutality experienced by the Belgian people was undeniable. During the 1915 "Rape of Belgium," as it became known, Germany waged war against Belgian civilians, resulting in 23,700 Belgian casualties overall. Manship's Kultur medal sold for ten dollars and raised considerable funds for the War Relief effort. Many critics, however, disliked its message, some saying that it "engendered hatred and places us on the same level with...Germany." The German word "Kultur" was a belief in the native German culture, felt to be superior to all other countries. The term would be used again by the Nazi Party during World War II.NotesThis medal was collected by Robert Hartshorne during his service in the First World War. Hartshorne joined the American Red Cross in 1916. His association with that organization apparently put him in touch with the American Committee for Devastated France, which intended to introduce modern American farming methods in those battlefield areas heavily damaged near Rheims. Hartshorne arrived in France in May of 1918 and returned to the United States at the end of December the same year. Hartshorne collected numerous medals, uniform insignia, and souvenirs commemorating his time abroad. For a more complete biography of Robert Hartshorne, please see the portrait miniature of Robert Hartshorne (accession number 2018.10.9).

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