Featured Pin 3
Pin Shown
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Title Secretary of State Diamond Eagle
Date circa 1890
Designer Unknown, France
Materials 18kt Yellow Gold, Silver, Diamonds, Rubies, Drop Natural Saltwater Pearl
Size 3.5" x 1.1"
(8.9cm x 2.8cm)
Swearing-In As Secretary of State, 1997
On December 5, 1996, President Clinton nominated Madeleine Albright to serve as the country’s sixty-fourth Secretary of State. She was sworn in on January 23, 1997. In honor of the occasion, she acquired this antique eagle pin. To her subsequent dismay, she failed to notice that the complicated clasp was not fastened properly. At the rehearsal just outside the Oval Office, the pin was attached, but during the formal ceremony, the eagle was barely hanging on.