Stacks Image 46
“Using the Pine medal as a stimulus, learners have the chance to think deeply and discuss ideas around posthumous ethics, suffrage, equality, and ownership.”
Kim Down, The Philosophy Foundation (London)

Stacks Image 91

The Peace Flag designed by Cora di Brazzà. To learn more about the flag and its symbolism, click here.

When Cora di Brazzà designed the peace flag in 1897, she was guided by one of Froebel's principles, "use the eyes." At the Cora di Brazzà Foundation, we embrace that teaching, using specific visual objects (such as the peace flag) as portals which allow the learner to "enter the forest" of "peace and justice history and philosophy," as we call it.

Nurse Pine's suffragette medal is just such a portal ! A formidable information delivery device, the medal can be used as a STIMULUS for Philosophical Inquiry (PI). Also known as COPI (Community of Philosophical Inquiry), PI is a structured dialogue that engages participants in the activity of 'doing philosophy.'

Stacks Image 137

How to use the medal as Philosophical Stimulus for a Philosophical Inquiry (PI)?

Here's a quick guide to get you started - set aside 30 minutes for background and 1 hour for the activity. (For more a more advanced Inquiry contact the London based Philosophy Foundation
here.)

1) Read the 1 page info sheet on conducting a Philosophical Inquiry (PI)
here.

2) Go to the medal's image map at
nursepinemedal.com and play the video at dot #12 for participants as backgrounder. When the video is done, draw attention to the image map and other informational dots (learners can explore on their own for homework)

3) Nurse Pine's Will 101:
Nurse Pine's Will is mentioned in the video. Ask the question "Is it wrong to disrespect someone's Last Will and Testament," Why or Why not? Follow the principles of a PI and assign a scribe/concept mapper to publicly record the answers on an overhead/posterboard.

4) When Wills are "Impossible" to Respect: Follow up Question: "What should happen to a bequeathed object when the museum/archive to which it is bequeathed ceases to exist" (There is in fact a legal answer to this question in both U.K. and U.S. law). (Scribe/concept mapper records on separate poster/overhead)

5) Will Power: Discuss some famous Wills (e.g., that of
Alfred Nobel) which bequeath property for a public good. Discuss the power of someone's final intentions when aimed at the public's welfare. (Scribe/concept mapper records on separate poster/overhead)

*This inquiry based on sessions led by Dr. Hope Elizabeth May with her students at Central Michigan University. A handout of the 2025 session can be
downloaded here.

Stacks Image 102
Artist Candice Russell's reproduction of "The Thinking Woman" commissioned by Hope Elizabeth May for the Cora di Brazzà Foundation (CDBF) in 2022. Modeled after Rodin's "Thinker,", the original by Edith Ogden Heidel was gifted to the National Woman's Party in 1922, and is somewhere in Washington D.C. (likely an archive of the Smithsonian). The "Thinking Woman" is one of the visual objects that the CDBF uses to help learners "enter the forest" of peace and justice history and philosophy.
Stacks Image 143
Stacks Image 67

©2026 Hope Elizabeth May/The Cora di Brazzà Foundation Contact Me
Stacks Image 147
“Using the Pine medal as a stimulus, learners have the chance to think deeply and discuss ideas around posthumous ethics, suffrage, equality, and ownership.”
Kim Down, The Philosophy Foundation (London)

When Cora di Brazzà designed the peace flag in 1897, she was guided by one of Froebel's principles, "use the eyes." At the Cora di Brazzà Foundation, we embrace that teaching, using specific visual objects (such as the peace flag) as portals which allow the learner to "enter the forest" of "peace and justice history and philosophy," as we call it.

Nurse Pine's suffragette medal is just such a portal ! A formidable information delivery device, the medal can be used as a STIMULUS for Philosophical Inquiry (PI). Also known as COPI (Community of Philosophical Inquiry), PI is a structured dialogue that engages participants in the activity of 'doing philosophy.'

Stacks Image 161

The Peace Flag designed by Cora di Brazzà. To learn more about the flag and its symbolism, click here.

Stacks Image 165

How to use the medal as Philosophical Stimulus for a Philosophical Inquiry (PI)?

Here's a quick guide to get you started - set aside 30 minutes for background and 1 hour for the activity. (For more a more advanced Inquiry contact the London based Philosophy Foundation
here.)

1) Read the 1 page info sheet on conducting a Philosophical Inquiry (PI)
here.

2) Go to the medal's image map at
nursepinemedal.com and play the video at dot #12 for participants as backgrounder. When the video is done, draw attention to the image map and other informational dots (learners can explore on their own for homework)

3) Nurse Pine's Will 101:
Nurse Pine's Will is mentioned in the video. Ask the question "Is it wrong to disrespect someone's Last Will and Testament," Why or Why not? Follow the principles of a PI and assign a scribe/concept mapper to publicly record the answers on an overhead/posterboard.

4) When Wills are "Impossible" to Respect: Follow up Question: "What should happen to a bequeathed object when the museum/archive to which it is bequeathed ceases to exist" (There is in fact a legal answer to this question in both U.K. and U.S. law). (Scribe/concept mapper records on separate poster/overhead)

5) Will Power: Discuss some famous Wills (e.g., that of
Alfred Nobel) which bequeath property for a public good. Discuss the power of someone's final intentions when aimed at the public's welfare. (Scribe/concept mapper records on separate poster/overhead)

*This inquiry based on sessions led by Dr. Hope Elizabeth May with her students at Central Michigan University. A handout of the 2025 session can be
downloaded here.


Stacks Image 179
Stacks Image 175
©2026 Hope Elizabeth May/The Cora di Brazzà Foundation Contact Me