printing plate for wedding invitation
date: label: date made
content: 1920
name: label: maker
content: Western Union Corporation
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: A brass engraving plate used to print wedding invitations that has been converted into an ashtray. The engraving reads: "Mr. and Mrs. John Melchner / request the honor of your presence at / the marriage of their daughter / Marie Catherine / to / Mr. Edward Charles Koeniger / Tuesday morning January eighteenth / one thousand nine hundred and twenty-one / at nine o’clock / Church of the Most Holy Redeemer / one hundred seventy three East third Street / New York City." The ceremony was for Edward Charles Koeniger (11 September 1894 - 8 June 1938) and Marie Catherine Melchner (8 August 1900 - 11 April 1957). We have no information on when this plate was made into an ashtray nor how it came to the Western Union Museum. It came to the Smithsonian in 1971 when the WUM closed.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Western Union Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.294351.133
label: catalog number
content: 294351.133
label: accession number
content: 294351
objectType: label: Object Name
content: engraving
label: Object Name
content: ashtray
label: Object Name
content: emphemera
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/4 in x 4 3/8 in x 1/2 in; 13.335 cm x 11.1125 cm x 1.27 cm