Science Presenting Steam & Electricity to Industry & Commerce
This vignette was designed by Edwin H. Blashfield and engraved by Charles Schlecht and G.F.C.Smillie.
It represents Science presenting Electricity,carrying a roll of wire wound into an electromagnet and Steam,holding a lever which controls the gear of an engine,to Commerce(on our left) and Industry.Depicting our country moving into the Industrial Age.
It was originally intended to be used on the $50 note but to Blashfields dismay was instead used on the $2 note when the original $2 design, by Will H. Low, was rejected by BEP Chief Johnson.
This presentation will focus only on Schlecht.
Charles Schlecht was born in Stuttgart,Germany in 1843. In 1852, at the age of 9, he emigrated to the U.S. with his parents where they settled in Manhattan,N.Y.C.
He began his apprenticeship at the American Bank Note Co. in 1859. He later received further instruction from Charles Burt and Alfred Jones,Two of the periods premier engravers.
Sometime in 1864 he left ABNCo for a position at the Western Bank Note Co. I could not find the duration of his stay at Western but he later returned to ABNCo. He was employed there twice until 1893.
In 1893 he joined the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Besides his work on currency he also engraved the plates for stamps and other documents.
A newspaper article that I found in my research stated that his salary at the BEP was $6000 a year!! It said that this sum of money was more than congressmen made but less than he could make in the free market.
Some information that I uncovered indicates that Schlecht became a naturalized citizen on March 15,1869 and about a year and a half later, October 11, 1870, married Clara Thieme in Manhattan. The marriage produced 6 children.
I could not find any information for the years between 1900,when he left ABNCo. and his death in 1932, in NYC.
Thank You,.................John
PS: here is the link for the 1894 newspaper article that I mentioned.It appears in the last 2 columns.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lc...08/ed-1/seq-3/ 
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