I know there is unpublished material on 19th century Catholic medallion  
pendants from the Royal Presidio de San Diego in California. The collection is  
curated by the City of San Diego, Park & Recreation Department and I  understand 
there is a committee working with the collection. Some of Paul H.  Ezell's 
papers on the medallions might be at the San Diego Historical Society.  Also, 
the SHA in Baltimore had a number of people who were specialists in  religious 
medals, including a man whose name escapes me, but he worked for the  
Smithsonian Institution. I suggest you contact the Southwest Mission Research  Center 
and Bunny Fontana.
 
Just to add to this issue, underwater archaeologist Roy Pettus led a dive  
team in 1981 that recovered a Catholic medallion attached to a necklace with  
olive wood beads in about 15-feet of water south of Ballast Point, San Diego,  
California. The medallion was drawn and published by the Cabrillo Historical  
Association, Cabrillo National Monument in 1982. I later learned the date of  
"1830" on the medal refers to a miracle alleged to occur on that date and does  
not actually date the age of the medallion. We were always suspect of the 
olive  wood surviving very long underwater.
 
Ron May
Legacy 106, Inc.
 
 
In a message dated 5/10/2008 5:53:06 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

Greetings all,

I was wondering if anyone out there might know of  a
good website or source materials for identifying 19th
century  religious pendants, specifically
mexican-american catholic pendants of the  American
southwest. 

Best,
Jeremy Pye


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