Caldecott Medal
The award is named for Randolph Caldecott, a nineteenth-century English illustrator. Rene Paul Chambellan designed the Medal in 1937. The obverse scene is derived from Randolph Caldecott's front cover illustration for "The Diverting History of John Gilpin" (Routledge, 1878, an edition of the 1782 poem by William Cowper), which depicts Gilpin astride a runaway horse. The reverse is based on "Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie", one of Caldecott's illustrations for the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence".
Thomas E. Caldecott
Caldecott was born in Chester, England on July 27, 1878. Both of his parents were Welsh. The family immigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada about 1882. Caldecott grew up in Canada, and obtained a pharmacy degree from the University of Toronto in 1900. Thomas and his brother visited Berkeley, California, and shortly thereafter in 1903, moved their entire family there. That same year, Caldecott bought a pharmacy at Dwight Way and Shattuck Avenue, later moved to Ashby Avenue and Adeline Street in the Webb Block, a building which was designated a local landmark in 2004.