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Hidden Figures get their long-awaited gold medals
- Published: Sep 27, 2024, 8 AM
Five congressional gold medals — for four individual and one group — were presented by the congressional leadership Sept. 18 to recognize the achievements of Katherine Johnson, Dr. Christine Darden, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, and collectively “all of the women who contributed to the success of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the Space Race.”
The medal presentation ceremony was held in Emancipation Hall within the United States Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.
The 1.5-inch and 3-inch Matte Finish bronze duplicate medals of each of the five gold medals are offered from the United States Mint, respectively, for $20 each and $160 each.
The plain edge bronze medals replicate the same designs that appear on the gold medals and will be struck at the Philadelphia Mint, but without the facility’s P Mint mark.
The medals were authorized under provisions of the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act, Public Law 116-68, signed Nov. 8, 2019, by then President Donald J. Trump (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-116publ68/pdf/PLAW-116publ68.pdf).
NASA beginnings
According to the gold medal authorization:
“In 1935, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (referred to in this section as ‘NACA’) hired five women to serve as the first ‘computer pool’ at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory [in Hampton, Virginia] where those women took on workmaking calculations that male engineers had made previously.
“During the 1940s, NACA began recruiting African American women to work as computers and initially separated those women from their White counterparts in a group known as the ‘West Area Computers’ where the women were restricted to segregated dining and bathroom facilities.’ ”
Katherine Johnson
Starting in the early 1950s, Johnson worked in the computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ Langley laboratory. She later joined the Space Task Group as NACA became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Johnson did trajectory analysis for astronaut Alan Shepard’s May 1961 Freedom 7 mission, America’s first human space flight.
She co-authored Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite over a Selected Earth Position, a report laying out the equations describing an orbital spaceflight in which the landing position of the spacecraft is specified.
Johnson’s calculations were also adapted for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission in 1962. She contributed to syncing Project Apollo’s lunar lander with the moon-orbiting command and service module. Johnson also worked on the space shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite. After 33 years at Langley, Johnson retired in 1986.
Johnson died on Feb. 24, 2020, at the age of 101.
The obverse of Johnson’s medal portrays Katherine Johnson in front of a variety of equations used to calculate the orbits and trajectories of spacecraft. The inscription is KATHERINE JOHNSON.
The obverse was designed by U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program designer Justin Kunz and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Craig A. Campbell.
The reverse, designed by AIP designer Richard Masters and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw, depicts a diagram on a chalkboard showing Apollo 11’s lunar lander linking up with the command and service module.
Dr. Christine Darden
Darden began her career in aeronautics in 1967 as a data analyst at NASA’s Langley Research Center before being promoted to aerospace engineer in 1973.
Darden’s work in this position resulted in the production of low-boom sonic effects, which revolutionized aerodynamics design. While working at NASA, Darden was appointed leader of the Sonic Boom Team, which worked on designs to minimize the effects of sonic booms by testing wing and nose designs for supersonic aircraft. She was eventually elevated to the senior executive service.
Throughout her career, Darden has lived by a formula she conceived of as the Four P’s, or P4, standing for “Perceive, Plan, Prepare, and Persist.”
The medal’s obverse, designed and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill, depicts a portrait of Dr. Darden holding a model plane.
The reverse, designed by AIP designer Robert J. Clarke and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw, highlights Dr. Darden’s illustrious career, with stars symbolizing her four decades of service at NASA, while the graph shows a sonic boom cone hitting the ground, explaining in visual form some of the mathematical formulas that describe the air pressures involved in sonic boom minimization.
Dorothy Vaughan
Dorothy Vaughan began working for NACA in 1943, working her way up to head the West Area Computing unit, becoming NACA’s first African-American supervisor.
Vaughan became an expert programmer in FORTRAN as a member of NASA’s Analysis and Computation Division.
The Vaughan medal’s obverse, designed by AIP Designer Richard Masters and sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill, depicts a portrait of Dorothy J. Vaughan.
A border of piano keys encircles the design, representing her lifelong love of playing piano.
The reverse, designed by AIP designer Emily S. Damstra and sculpted by McGraw, depicts Vaughan in front of a mainframe computer in a teaching pose, instructing two colleagues. In the background, a sun symbolizes enlightenment, suggesting she was a beacon for others, leading the way for African-American women.
Mary Jackson
Jackson was NASA’s first female African-American aeronautical engineer.
Jackson started her career at NACA in 1951, working as a computer as a member of the West Area Computing unit.
After petitioning the City of Hampton to allow her to take graduate-level courses in math and physics at night at the all-White Hampton High School, Mary Jackson was able to complete the required training to become an engineer, making her NASA’s first female African-American engineer.
While at NACA and NASA, Jackson worked in the Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch of the Subsonic-Transonic Aerodynamics Division at Langley where she analyzed wind tunnel and aircraft flight data; and published a dozen technical papers that focused on the boundary layer of air around airplanes; and after 21 years working as an engineer at NASA, transitioned to a new job as Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager where she worked to improve the prospects of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers, and scientists. Jackson retired from NASA in 1985 and died in 2005.
The obverse of the Jackson medal, designed by AIP designer Thomas Hipschen and sculpted by Gordon, depicts Jackson holding an early model of the space shuttle.
The reverse, designed by Hipschen and sculpted by Campbell, features a full-length figure of Mary W. Jackson holding a clipboard and pen, superimposed on a large wind tunnel, representing her work with air boundary layer information.
Group medal
The obverse of the group recognition medal was designed by U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program designer Katelyn Arquette and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Renata Gordon.
The medals’ obverse depicts a group of women in silhouette looking on as the Apollo 11 successfully puts the first men on the moon.
The figures are symbolic of the “hidden” nature of the many women, including those of color, who served as mathematicians and engineers, making significant contributions to the success of the space program while working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (later reformulated into NASA) from the 1930s to 1970s.
The group medal reverse was designed by Arquette and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill.
It features the constellation Andromeda as a nod to the significant space program and aeronautics contributions made by the women being honored. Andromeda is also known as “the Chained Woman,” which is symbolic of the obstacles and difficulties overcome by the women whose contributions are finally being recognized and celebrated — breaking the chains of gender and racial constraints.
After official presentation, the Mary Jackson medal was given to her granddaughter, Wanda Jackson, with the remaining medals transferred to the Smithsonian Institution for display and research.
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Community Comments
Hidden Figures get their long-awaited gold medals
- Published: Sep 27, 2024, 8 AM
Five congressional gold medals — for four individual and one group — were presented by the congressional leadership Sept. 18 to recognize the achievements of Katherine Johnson, Dr. Christine Darden, Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, and collectively “all of the women who contributed to the success of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration during the Space Race.”
The medal presentation ceremony was held in Emancipation Hall within the United States Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C.
The 1.5-inch and 3-inch Matte Finish bronze duplicate medals of each of the five gold medals are offered from the United States Mint, respectively, for $20 each and $160 each.
The plain edge bronze medals replicate the same designs that appear on the gold medals and will be struck at the Philadelphia Mint, but without the facility’s P Mint mark.
The medals were authorized under provisions of the Hidden Figures Congressional Gold Medal Act, Public Law 116-68, signed Nov. 8, 2019, by then President Donald J. Trump (https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/PLAW-116publ68/pdf/PLAW-116publ68.pdf).
NASA beginnings
According to the gold medal authorization:
“In 1935, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (referred to in this section as ‘NACA’) hired five women to serve as the first ‘computer pool’ at the Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory [in Hampton, Virginia] where those women took on workmaking calculations that male engineers had made previously.
“During the 1940s, NACA began recruiting African American women to work as computers and initially separated those women from their White counterparts in a group known as the ‘West Area Computers’ where the women were restricted to segregated dining and bathroom facilities.’ ”
Katherine Johnson
Starting in the early 1950s, Johnson worked in the computing section at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics’ Langley laboratory. She later joined the Space Task Group as NACA became the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Johnson did trajectory analysis for astronaut Alan Shepard’s May 1961 Freedom 7 mission, America’s first human space flight.
She co-authored Determination of Azimuth Angle at Burnout for Placing a Satellite over a Selected Earth Position, a report laying out the equations describing an orbital spaceflight in which the landing position of the spacecraft is specified.
Johnson’s calculations were also adapted for John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission in 1962. She contributed to syncing Project Apollo’s lunar lander with the moon-orbiting command and service module. Johnson also worked on the space shuttle and the Earth Resources Satellite. After 33 years at Langley, Johnson retired in 1986.
Johnson died on Feb. 24, 2020, at the age of 101.
The obverse of Johnson’s medal portrays Katherine Johnson in front of a variety of equations used to calculate the orbits and trajectories of spacecraft. The inscription is KATHERINE JOHNSON.
The obverse was designed by U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program designer Justin Kunz and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Craig A. Campbell.
The reverse, designed by AIP designer Richard Masters and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw, depicts a diagram on a chalkboard showing Apollo 11’s lunar lander linking up with the command and service module.
Dr. Christine Darden
Darden began her career in aeronautics in 1967 as a data analyst at NASA’s Langley Research Center before being promoted to aerospace engineer in 1973.
Darden’s work in this position resulted in the production of low-boom sonic effects, which revolutionized aerodynamics design. While working at NASA, Darden was appointed leader of the Sonic Boom Team, which worked on designs to minimize the effects of sonic booms by testing wing and nose designs for supersonic aircraft. She was eventually elevated to the senior executive service.
Throughout her career, Darden has lived by a formula she conceived of as the Four P’s, or P4, standing for “Perceive, Plan, Prepare, and Persist.”
The medal’s obverse, designed and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill, depicts a portrait of Dr. Darden holding a model plane.
The reverse, designed by AIP designer Robert J. Clarke and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw, highlights Dr. Darden’s illustrious career, with stars symbolizing her four decades of service at NASA, while the graph shows a sonic boom cone hitting the ground, explaining in visual form some of the mathematical formulas that describe the air pressures involved in sonic boom minimization.
Dorothy Vaughan
Dorothy Vaughan began working for NACA in 1943, working her way up to head the West Area Computing unit, becoming NACA’s first African-American supervisor.
Vaughan became an expert programmer in FORTRAN as a member of NASA’s Analysis and Computation Division.
The Vaughan medal’s obverse, designed by AIP Designer Richard Masters and sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill, depicts a portrait of Dorothy J. Vaughan.
A border of piano keys encircles the design, representing her lifelong love of playing piano.
The reverse, designed by AIP designer Emily S. Damstra and sculpted by McGraw, depicts Vaughan in front of a mainframe computer in a teaching pose, instructing two colleagues. In the background, a sun symbolizes enlightenment, suggesting she was a beacon for others, leading the way for African-American women.
Mary Jackson
Jackson was NASA’s first female African-American aeronautical engineer.
Jackson started her career at NACA in 1951, working as a computer as a member of the West Area Computing unit.
After petitioning the City of Hampton to allow her to take graduate-level courses in math and physics at night at the all-White Hampton High School, Mary Jackson was able to complete the required training to become an engineer, making her NASA’s first female African-American engineer.
While at NACA and NASA, Jackson worked in the Theoretical Aerodynamics Branch of the Subsonic-Transonic Aerodynamics Division at Langley where she analyzed wind tunnel and aircraft flight data; and published a dozen technical papers that focused on the boundary layer of air around airplanes; and after 21 years working as an engineer at NASA, transitioned to a new job as Langley’s Federal Women’s Program Manager where she worked to improve the prospects of NASA’s female mathematicians, engineers, and scientists. Jackson retired from NASA in 1985 and died in 2005.
The obverse of the Jackson medal, designed by AIP designer Thomas Hipschen and sculpted by Gordon, depicts Jackson holding an early model of the space shuttle.
The reverse, designed by Hipschen and sculpted by Campbell, features a full-length figure of Mary W. Jackson holding a clipboard and pen, superimposed on a large wind tunnel, representing her work with air boundary layer information.
Group medal
The obverse of the group recognition medal was designed by U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program designer Katelyn Arquette and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Renata Gordon.
The medals’ obverse depicts a group of women in silhouette looking on as the Apollo 11 successfully puts the first men on the moon.
The figures are symbolic of the “hidden” nature of the many women, including those of color, who served as mathematicians and engineers, making significant contributions to the success of the space program while working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (later reformulated into NASA) from the 1930s to 1970s.
The group medal reverse was designed by Arquette and sculpted by U.S. Mint Medallic Artist Phebe Hemphill.
It features the constellation Andromeda as a nod to the significant space program and aeronautics contributions made by the women being honored. Andromeda is also known as “the Chained Woman,” which is symbolic of the obstacles and difficulties overcome by the women whose contributions are finally being recognized and celebrated — breaking the chains of gender and racial constraints.
After official presentation, the Mary Jackson medal was given to her granddaughter, Wanda Jackson, with the remaining medals transferred to the Smithsonian Institution for display and research.
Connect with Coin World:
Sign up for our free eNewsletter
Access our Dealer Directory
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on X (Twitter)
Whether you’re a current subscriber or new, you can take advantage of the best offers on magazine subscriptions available in digital, print or both! Whether you want your issue every week or every month, there’s a subscription to meet your needs.