The medal's obverse bears bust of Bishop facing left. In two lines around bottom half, · ROBERT · HAMILTON · BISHOP · FIRST · PRESIDENT · OF · / (leaves) MIAMI · UNIVERSITY (leaves); signed under truncation at right, EBH
The reverse shows college building with three bare trees, two flanking, one in front. Around top in three lines, WILLIAM · HOLMES · McGUFFEY : ROBERT · CUMMINGS · SCHENK : BENJAMIN · HARRISON / ·· DAVID · SWING ·· WHITELAW · REID ·· JOHN · SHAW · BILLINGS ·· / HENRY · MITCHELL · McCRACKEN : ANDREW · DOUSA · HEPBURN ·; in exergue, KIYOSHI TOMIZAWA / AWARDED FOR / MERITORIOUS PUBLIC / SERVICE / 1937
Robert Hamilton Bishop (1777-1855) was a Scottish-American who became the first President of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Before that he was an early sympathizer with the plight of black slaves. In 1815, he organized a Negro school at Pisgah in Woodford County, Kentucky, and in 1816 he opened a school for African-American girls at Transylvania. His 1824 history of the church in Kentucky gave credit to the slaves Peter Durrett and his wife for founding and building up the First African Baptist Church of Lexington, Kentucky. Late nineteenth -century histories noted only white churches in Kentucky.
Miami University maintains a page with all recipients of the Bishop Medal.
Issued by Miami University, the circular medal measures 70mm in diameter and was struck in bronze by the Medallic Art Company of New York.
References: MACo 1936-002