Flashback Friday: Gold Medal

My great-grandmother was born in 1880 and lived to be ninety.  As a child, I adored her and the two of us spent many happy hours together. 

I inherited a few of her possessions; the gold medal she earned for recitation when she was fifteen and her elocution textbook are an interesting pair of heirlooms.     

Elocution textbook, published in 1889.
My great-grandmother's name penciled inside.

She attended school at the Piedmont Institute in Rockmart (here's a photo).  Elocution lessons were an extra $3.00 a month but it looks like they paid off!

Her medal, earned in 1895.  

She was quite proud of her medal, as evidenced by the fact that she's seen wearing it years later.  In the photo below, she's wearing the dress she married in (I have the velvet belt and collar, saved all these years!) AND the medal.

Carrie and Luther Wright
Alma Kate Wright
January 18, 1903
Hughey Family Reunion

This photo of her with her daughter, Alma Kate (my paternal grandmother), was probably taken around 1914.  Yep, still sporting the medal.

Alma Kate Wright  ~ Carrie Lee Davis Wright

Now I wear the medal, but only on special occasions.  It's a lovely piece of jewelry, but more than that, a cherished family heirloom.

Just for fun, here is a tintype of her as a child.  Precious, huh?

Carrie Lee Davis c. 1885