American Art Collaborative

Drawn by the prospect of a ten-thousand-dollar prize, the printer John Wesley Hyatt (1837-1920) invented celluloid in 1869 as an alternative to the ivory used to produce billiard balls. Hyatt established the Celluloid Manufacturing Company in 1871, and the new material proved useful for millions of objects produced over the next seventy years. The Hyatt Award is given annually by the Society of Plastics Engineers. This die trial of the obverse of Paul Manship’s medal depicts Hyatt in profile