Which Czechoslovak order did Tesla receive in 1937?

Czechoslovakia awarded Tesla the Order of the White Lion in 1937.

Tesla received the decoration during celebrations of his eighty-first birthday in New York. Vladimir Hurban, Czechoslovakia’s minister in the United States, presented the order at a luncheon associated with Tesla’s birthday on July 10, 1937. It was the Grand Cross, or first degree, of the order.

The Order of the White Lion had been created in 1922 as a Czechoslovak honor for foreigners. Its name refers to the traditional Bohemian silver lion, a national symbol that also appears in the heraldic history of the Czech lands.

Tesla received another major foreign decoration at the same celebration: Yugoslavia’s Order of the White Eagle. That pairing explains a frequent mix-up. The White Eagle was Yugoslav, while the White Lion was Czechoslovak. The Order of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk is a separate Czech distinction established much later.