Orville A Derby Medal, Divisão de Geologia e Mineralogia, Brazil, 1951

The Derby medal was created in 1951 by the Brazilian Geological Survey to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Derby’s birth (in New York state), so Holmes was the first person to receive the Medal. Although an American by birth, for many years Derby was widely regarded as the leading geologist in South America. The medal has a likeness of Derby on it, which is based on a photograph that was taken after his death by suicide in 1915. His suicide caught everyone by surprise and the people at the Survey office realized they had no recent picture of him, so they sent some men to his hotel room, he was cleaned up, put in a chair, and photographed – his eyes held open with match sticks which were later removed in the touch-up process!