Reward of merit medal for Benjamin Holt Ticknor
Boston, Massachusetts, 1854
Silver, engraved on both sides, diameter 2 ¾ inches, original blue silk ribbon
Engraved on front within bright cut border: “Macte virute puer. / Awarded / to / Benjamin H. Ticknor / Dec. 30, 1854 / Sic itur ad astra.”
Engraved on verso within bright cut border: “Correctness in Principle / Second Prize, / Chauncey Hall / School. / Proved by fidelity in duty.”

Reward of merit medal for Benjamin Holt Ticknor
Boston, Massachusetts, 1855
Gold, engraved on both sides, diameter 1 ¾ inches, original pale gray silk ribbon
Engraved on front within bright cut border: “Puer probae indolis, / Awarded to / Benj. H. Ticknor / Dec. 31, 1855. / Industriae laundandae. “
Engraved on verso within bright cut border: “May similar success / Second / GOLD MEDAL / Chauncy Hall / School. / Crown your future efforts”

Reward of merit medal for Benjamin Holt Ticknor
Boston, Massachusetts, 1855
Gold, engraved on both sides, diameter 1 ¾ inches, original pale gray silk ribbon
Engraved on front within bright cut border: “First / GOLD MEDAL / Chauncy Hall / School”
Engraved on verso within bright cut border: “Awarded to / Benj. H. Ticknor / December, 31… / 1856.”

Benjamin Holt Ticknor (1842-1914), was born August 3, 1842 in Boston, Massachusetts to William Davis Ticknor (1810-1864) and Emeline Staniford Holt (1810-1879). He married Caroline Coolidge Cushman (1844-1913) in 1884. The couple resided in Boston and together they produced five children between 1866 and 1884. Benjamin Holt Ticknor is listed in Who’s Who in The World, 1910-11 as a Publisher residing in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. He died January 15, 1914.

The Chauncy Hall School was founded in 1828 by Gideon Thayer as a day school for Boys in Boston’s Downtown Crossing. The school originally trained the children of wealthy Bostonians for careers in business and later prepared students to attend Harvard and other prestigious colleges. Chauncy Hall was known for its many innovations in education, including literature for reading lessons, and implementing a department system to recognize teachers who were “gifted and accomplished in different directions.” In 1971 Chauncy Hall merged with Chapel Hill, a school for girls founded in 1860 in Waltham and in 1974 Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall incorporated Huntington School, a Boston school for boys founded in 1909. The school today is known as Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall and is located in Waltham, Massachusetts.