Silver medal discovered from the 1850's

     This medal, awarded to St. Joseph’s student James W. Newlin in 1855, is a very rare find from some of the earliest days of Jesuit education in Philadelphia.  Although the opening of the Prep is traditionally set at 1851 – the year that the college began under the control of Fr. Felix Barbelin, SJ – it seems reasonable to believe that boys of high school age took courses at “Old” Saint Joseph’s Church in Willings Alley long before that date.  In fact, in his history of Saint Joseph’s Prep, Fr. James J. Gormley, S.J., notes that Jesuit education started as early as 1781 and turned into a high school between 1800 and 1833.  In the seminal work of an earlier Jesuit – “Jesuit Education in Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s College 1851-1926” by Francis X. Talbot – it is also stated that a school had been constructed by the Jesuits (at the cost of £440, 15s.) in 1781.  Whatever the case may be, the Prep is really older than 1851.

     Although we at the Villiger Archives know very little about this medal, we can assume that it was presented at an end-of-school year assembly, similar to the one mentioned by Gormley on July 11, 1852.  Those alumni of Saint Joseph’s University who own David Contosta’ excellent history of the University should also note that a very similar medal is displayed on page 29.  Both medals are silver, and they are dated one year apart from each other.

     This medal is particularly important for a number of reasons.  Information about the Prep’s and the University’s earliest students is often difficult to come across, so knowing that there was a James W. Newlin at St. Joseph’s who received this medal is significant in and of itself.  Additionally, this may be one of only two surviving medals – (the other one is displayed in Contosta’s book).  Perhaps most significantly, it is another artifact from an increasingly distant time in our combined institutional histories.  It is hard to imagine being a Catholic student in the Philadelphia of the 1850’s, as James W. Newlin must have lived during the infamous riots of 1844, in a place and time decidedly distant from our own understanding.