WITNESSES TO THE BIRTH OF MODERNITY: TABLETOP MEDALS OF INDUSTRIAL FAIRS, 1850s – 1913

Industrial exhibition medals from the 19th and early 20th centuries serve as a significant source for understanding social practices and ideology of the era. Medals occupy a middle ground between awards and coins. Historically, coins not only facilitated trade but also acted as potent propaganda tools, symbolizing state dignity and power. This tradition continued with exhibition medals, which evolved from institutional uses of early modern rulers into a symbol of industrial and entrepreneurial achievement during the industrial exhibitions. This article examines the iconography of these medals and their importance to entrepreneurs. The study explores how medals reflected the era's worldview and ideology and their practical value for entrepreneurs as prestigious artifacts and marketing tools. It discusses the visual language of medals, which often featured allegorical figures representing state ideology and technological progress. The iconography of these medals reflects a universal visual language of the Western world, symbolizing both national pride and progress during the Victorian and early Edwardian era. The author pays special attention to industrial and specialized exhibitions in the lands of Ukraine that were incorporated into the Russian Empire, as well as the participation of Ukrainian entrepreneurs in similar exhibitions outside Ukraine. He emphasizes that exhibition awards and medals had great economic value, especially for customer-oriented small businesses. However, by 1914, the significance of medals had decreased significantly. This was partly due to the bureaucratic difficulties faced by organizing committees and partly because the constantly increasing number of exhibitions devalued their awards.