To Cyrus W. Field from the American Chamber of Commerce, Liverpool, on the Laying of the Atlantic Cable, 1866 1866

This gold medal was crafted by Joseph Shepherd Wyon in 1866 to commemorate the laying of the Atlantic cable. Note the two shields, heraldic devices of enormous symbolic weight: one represents Great Britain with its lions and harp, the other, the United States, displaying stars and stripes. These symbols, deeply entrenched in the collective consciousness, evoke notions of national identity, power, and historical continuity. In antiquity, similar emblems adorned shields as talismans, believed to protect warriors in battle. Above the shields, a ship cuts through the ocean, a vessel of progress, yet also a vulnerable carrier across the untamed sea. The ship, like the shields, echoes earlier artistic motifs. Think of the ship Argo, a symbol of perilous journeys. Here, the ship signifies both technological triumph and the enduring human drive to connect, to bridge distances. The act of laying a cable across the Atlantic encapsulates a modern quest, charged with ancient, almost mythical, resonance.