The New York Nautical Institution and Shipmaster's Society was one of the many organizations that sprang up in early nineteenth-century America to foster professionalism in various trades. It was founded in 1820 "for the promotion of maritime knowledge, and the extension and diffusion of nautical science generally, as well as for benevolent purposes." Its initial membership was focused on the port of New York, but it apparently broadened its scope soon after its founding. This badge is dated 1821 and is engraved with the name Jacob Baush, a ship captain who sailed out of Philadelphia. The number 142 on the front of the badge is presumably Baush's membership number. The New York Nautical Institution had significant presence at the time it was founded and is recorded as one of the societies that participated in the elaborate celebration for the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. Given the institution's role in cultivating the navigational sciences, it is fitting that the badge is in the form of a sextant, a navigational tool used to measure the altitude of a celestial object above the horizon.