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Smithsonian Institution
S.P. Langley,
Secretary
Washington D.C.

December 20, 1893

Dear Sir: 

I am pleased with the sketch that you send for the medal, but after consideration has led me to doubt whether it will not be better to place upon it the profile of Henry, (the first Secretary of this Institution), rather than of Mr. Hodgkins.

I notice that the sketch you send is considerably larger than the limiting size I fixed.  Please let it be three inches in diameter.  I should be glad, if you do not disapprove, to see the lettering raised, rather than incised, and to have these treated in a similar way to those on the obverse of the medal, which is already provided, and which you will notice has the lettering so that it can be read without turning the medal round.  A sketch illustrating my meaning, but not intended for more than a suggestion, is enclosed.  The name of the recipient, for which of course a place must be provided, might perhaps be on the rim, for which there is a precedent in the Rumford medal.