copy of Congressional medal awarded to Cyrus W. Field
date: label: date made
content: 1921
label: date made
content: 1867
name: label: maker
content: American Emblem Company
notes: label: Description
content: This is almost certainly a reproduction. An XRF scan conducted on 5 February 2018 failed to indicate gold but found zinc and copper.
label: Description
content: This object is a bronze copy of a gold medal presented to Cyrus Field in 1867. Field's daughter Isabella loaned the original to the Smithsonian from 1899 to 1903. Curator George C. Maynard described the original as "Four inches in diameter; edge 3/8 inch (.376) thick; weight twenty nine and fourteen-sixteenths ounces, avoirdupois. Inscription on reverse side; "By resolution of the Congress of the United States, March 2. 1867, to Cyrus W. 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.”
label: Description
content: He identified the original medal as a “duplicate." He wrote, "The first medal struck was sent to the White House, to be presented to Mr. Field by the President [Andrew Johnson] and Field was notified to call for it. When he called the medal could not be found and, after some delay, another medal was struck and delivered to Field. Subsequently, upon clearing up the White House, for a change of administration the lost medal was found and given to Field. One medal is in the New York Museum of Fine Arts; this is the other."
label: Description
content: Maynard wasn't certain which of the original medals was which. Isabella Field Judson wrote to Smithsonian secretary Langley on 25 July 1899: “I shall be glad to loan to the Institution the Gold Medal given by Congress to my father. I cannot say whether this one is the original or not, as there were two struck.”
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Electricity
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: from Western Union Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: EM.294351.101
label: catalog number
content: 294351.101
label: accession number
content: 294351
objectType: label: Object Name
content: badge
label: Object Name
content: medal
label: Object Name
content: insignia
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1/4 in x 3 in; .635 cm x 7.62 cm