Picture 23-6.

Here is an example of the fancy membership certificate the Amalgamated awarded to new members.  It was issued on September 1, 1916 to John W. Russell, whe worked the streetcars into the 1920s and possibly later.  He was just 24 years old, married with his first child, when he began his career on the cars.  I am grateful to the Russell Family for the use of this image of his certificate.

Amalgamated-membership.jpg

Here is a closeup of the vignette from the membership ccertificate.  At the left, we see an early interurban car.  At the right is a scene that could be from Chicago or New York, with an elevated train above and a streetcar below.  In those pre-bus days, the pictures illustrated all the forms of transit whose employees the Amalgamated aspired to represent.

Amalgamated-vignette.jpg

The Amalgamated's impressed seal gives a very official appearance to the certificate.  The central image is a streetcar, probably intended to be similar to the one in the center of the seal shown in the vignette (above), but after many impressions, it is pretty worn.  Notice also the scrollwork around the first letter of “This is to Certify”.

Amalgamated-seal.jpg

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