This artifact contains multitudes

by Rachel Feit

An 1838 Queen Victoria coronation medal

There are times when a single artifact speaks volumes. This is the case with a pierced coin we found at the home of Thomas Jefferson Chambers in Anahuac, Texas. The context was from a dwelling that was built in the 1830s and abandoned by the 1850s or 60s. Known in historical accounts as the “Old Spanish House” the dwelling was probably contemporaneous with the 1830 Fort Anahuac, built by Mexico-- when Texas was still part of Mexico-- in this coastal hamlet at the upper end of the Galveston Bay. (Anahuac is famous as the birthplace of the Texas Revolution for two uprisings against Fort Anahuac's Mexican garrison that occurred in 1832 and 1835. But that’s a different story). The Old Spanish House was where Thomas Jefferson Chambers may have lived in the years before he built the porticoed two-story home which is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The precise construction date of the existing Chambers home is not certain, though most accounts place it between 1845 and 1860. Acacia has been excavating the yard around what remains of the home to mitigate the effects a new justice complex will have on this property.

Two views of the Chambers House in 2024 (left and center). View of the Chambers house in its original state prior to 1900 (right). 

I spent weeks trying to make out the images and writing on this artifact, trying to match it to likely coins from the 19th century. I looked at Spanish and Mexican Reales, English pence, and American half dollars. Nothing seemed to match the faint writing and images on it. From what I could tell from the female bust and lettering though, the coin seemed old, and it seemed to be English, possibly Victorian. And then I found it.

The coin, as it turns out, is not a coin at all. It is a Queen Victoria coronation medal. Coronation medals like this one have been made to celebrate the ascension of English monarchs since the 16th century. Originally the medals would have been handed out to members of court who attended the coronation. But as coronations became larger, more public affairs, a wider variety of medals were manufactured and distributed by commercial foundries, some of whom were commissioned by the Royal Mint, and some who simply produced unauthorized versions. These medals-- struck in gold, silver, bronze, and other alloys-- were given to members of court, to children and other celebrants in the coronation procession, and even offered for sale as souvenirs.

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There seems to have been no shortage of medals struck to honor Victoria’s coronation. Medals were literally thrown into the crowds watching the coronation procession from the streets, causing a minor stampede to get them. Even inside Westminster Abbey a melee for medals transpired behind the scenes.

Snippet from the London Observer, July 8, 1838 describing the coronation of Queen Victoria

So much for dignity.

Our medal has a profile of the young Queen, her hair held up in a Grecian style braid on one side. If you look closely you can make out the words “Gracious” and “...ictoria.” around the perimeter. The full text most likely read: “Her Gracious Queen Victoria.”  On the other side, the central image is completely obscured, but there is some text faintly visible around the perimeter reading “Crowned Jun …..” at the bottom; and “Born ….24….” at the top.  The full text likely read: “Crowned June 28, 1838” and “Born May 24, 1819.”  I have yet to find any medals in my online search that match this lettering arrangement and style exactly, but there are many other examples online that have the same text arranged in a different configuration on the medal’s obverse side. The perforation at the top would have accommodated a wire loop attached to ribbon pin, a common manner of wearing such medals.

So how does an English coronation medal end up in Anahuac, Texas? Anahuac today is a sleepy fishing village that has a population of about 2,000. Although at one time its boosters-- Mexico’s nascent government and TJ Chambers among them-- aspired to make it a major port and commercial shipping center along the Gulf coast, that never materialized. Despite a flurry of construction in the early 1830s, by end of decade the once-hopeful port was all but a ghost town.  In fact, travelers passing through often remarked on the scarcity of inhabitants in Anahuac prior to 1870, commenting that the only dwelling of note was that of General TJ Chambers.

But backwater that it was, Anahuac, like all of Texas in the 19th century, was land of immigrants. People came from Spain, Mexico, America, Great Britain and across Europe. And at some point, someone landed there who may have attended Queen Victoria’s coronation in 1838. Perhaps Chambers himself picked up the medal up as a memento on one of his frequent trips through Galveston, New Orleans, Virginia, New York or Canada. Chambers was a man famous for his inflated sense of self-importance and it would be in character for him to have held a souvenir of the English monarchy. Perhaps it came from one of the many visitors that came through, eager to see the place where the seeds of the Texas Revolution germinated.

We will never know the details of how exactly the medal came to Anahuac. But it does remind us of a journey, and of just how embedded even the smallest Texas town was in global networks, particularly in trade with Great Britain. And this is reflected in the scores of other artifacts we’ve recovered from the Old Spanish House—artifacts that include English ceramic tablewares, European gunflints, and kaolin pipes imported from Glasgow.

For little Anahuac, Texas, the words of American poet Walt Whitman reverberate. “I am large. I contain multitudes.”