Margaret Day Dilks (Mrs. John Hyland), Academy trustee, announced in 1960 that she was establishing a Memorial Medal Award in honor of her grandfather, Richard Hopper Day, a life member of the Academy. The medal was for “outstanding exploration and discovery in natural sciences.”

The 1st award, April 26, 1960 was presented to the team of four men who organized and made the dive in Jacques Picard's bathyscaphe “Trieste” to the deepest spot in the ocean's floor known to man, Marianas Trench, southwest of Guam.

The collection consists of typescript publicity releases by the U. S. Navy and by the Academy. There are also photographs of the medal and medalists, with biographies attached to photos; and invitations to the Academy presentation, plus extracts from an illustrated article in Life, February 15, 1960.