CYRUS WEST FIELD.
[Laying of the Atlantic Telegraph Cable.]
Within a circle formed by a telegraphic cable: HONOR AND FAME ARE THE REWARD. On clouds in the midst of sunbeams the undraped bust of Cyrus West Field, facing the left. A hand from above places a crown on his head; below is the Atlantic Ocean; two ships going in opposite directions are paying out the cable; to the left, the western hemisphere, AMERICA; to the right, the eastern hemisphere, EUROPE; beneath, in a band formed by the Atlantic cable and a chain uniting the two worlds, INDOMITABLE PERSEVERANCE AND ENDURING FAITH ACHIEVED THE SUCCESS, J. G. BRUFF D. (delineavit.) BARBER F. (fecit).
Within an endless chain: BY RESOLUTION OF THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES. MARCH 2, 1867. TO CYRUS W. (West) FIELD, OF NEW YORK FOR HIS FORESIGHT, FAITH, AND PERSISTENCY, IN ESTABLISHING TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION, BY MEANS OF THE ATLANTIC TELEGRAPH, CONNECTING THE OLD WITH THE NEW WORLD. To the left, the American shield; to the right, a star formed of thirty-one smaller stars; below, the terrestrial globe, showing AMERICA and EUROPE, surrounded with electric sparks, surmounted by a torch and a caduceus crossed, and resting on branches of laurel and of oak.
J. Goldsborough Bruff was in 1872 one of the designing artists attached to the Treasury Department in Washington. He designed the face of this medal.
William Barber, at present engraver to the United States Mint in Philadelphia, was born in London, England. The principal medals engraved by him are those of Cyrus W. Field, Elliot, Rittenhouse, James Pollock, Joseph Pancoast, and Dr. Linderman.
Cyrus West Field was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, November 30, 1819. He went to New York city at the age of fifteen, and entered a commercial house. He was one of the first promoters of an Atlantic telegraph, and founded the New York, Newfoundland, and London Telegraph Company in 1854; organized the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1856; and took a leading part in the various attempts to lay a transatlantic cable. He received a vote of thanks and a gold medal from Congress for the final success of this great undertaking. He is still living.