Tinius Olsen was a Norwegian-born American engineer and inventor. He was the founder of the Tinius Olsen Material Testing Machine Company, a maker of material testing machines. He was awarded the Elliott Cresson Medal of The Franklin Institute in 1891 for his autographic testing machine.

The Elliott Cresson Medal, also known as the Elliott Cresson Gold Medal, was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute. The award was established by Elliott Cresson, life member of the Franklin Institute, with $1,000 granted in 1848. The endowed award was to be "for some discovery in the Arts and Sciences, or for the invention or improvement of some useful machine, or for some new process or combination of materials in manufactures, or for ingenuity skill or perfection in workmanship." The medal was first awarded in 1875, 21 years after Cresson's death.