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.
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS.
Resolution of Congress Voting a Medal to Cyrus W. Field.
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled: That the thanks of Congress be, and they hereby are, presented to Cyrus W. Field of New York, for his foresight, courage and determination in establishing telegraphic communication by means of the Atlantic cable, traversing mid-ocean and connecting the Old World with the New; and that the President of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscription, to be presented to Mr. Field.
And be it further resolved, That when the medal shall have been struck, the President shall cause a copy of this joint resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the same, together with the medal, to Mr. Field to be presented to him in the name of the people of the United States of America.