Medallic Art Collector's Selection

The medal's obverse bears a black-crowned night heron shown from behind, its head turned to the right, perching on a slender branch; concave circle behind bird's head is suggestive of the moon.

The reverse depicts a perching bird, a leafed branch overhead, looking downward to the left with its wings lifted about to fly. Across, Brookgreen / Gardens / SOUTH / CAROLINA; signed at bottom right, HW

Heidi Wastweet enjoyed Brookgreen Gardens' Artist-in-Residence program in 2015 and sketched the native herons during visits to the Cypress Aviary of the Lowcountry Zoo.

Heidi Wastweet won the American Medallic Sculpture Association's American Medal of the Year Award 2018 for this design. It took three rounds of voting before her medal beat out over 40 other designs that had been submitted. 

The almost square medal measures 75.8mm x 76.3mm and was struck in bronze. The mintage is reported to be around 1,000 pieces.

References:   BG 45

The medallion's obverse bears Hermes, the messenger god, bearing a banner inscribed with UNIVERSAL SERVICE; over him, a bell from which lightning emanates. Around centerfield, within intricately patterned border, · AMERICAN · TELEPHONE · AND · TELEGRAPH · CO · AND · ASSOCIATED · COMPANIES ·

The reverse bears, within intricate border, Bell / Advanced / Management / Program / ANTHONY J. RIZZO / Presented by / (signature) / W.S. Cashel Jr. / October 1978

This large medallion is unsigned and somewhat hard to identify. The closest I could get—corresponding nicely with the medallion's style—is to identify the original designer as Paul Manship and the sculptor as Tom Rogers. Dick Johnson lists a 1980's medal modeled by Tom Rogers, based on a 1916 7 foot diameter floor plate designed by Manship and cast by Gorham. Two such plates originally resided in the Western Union Building at 195 Broadway, New York City.  He also references Murtha 75 which describes the floor plates as

"low relief of a male figure carrying a bell which emits flashes of electricity"

This sounds close and together with the corporate connection, the stylistic match, and the absence of other candidates, it sounds like a plausible match. The only mismatch is the 1978 award date, which precedes the 1980's range listed by Johnson by a few years, but small discrepancies in medal dating are not uncommon in reference works.

I have thus tentatively filed this medallion under Manship and Rogers and would love to receive confirmations or rebuttals.

The circular medallion measures 100mm in diameter and was struck in bronze. No mintage is reported.