Autographs
"Cyrus W. Field" Atlantic Telegraph Founder Signed Letter
CYRUS W. FIELD (1819 " 1892). American Businessman and Financier who led the Atlantic Telegraph Company, the company that successfully laid the First Telegraph Cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858.
December 6, 1872-Dated Letter Signed, "Cyrus W. Field" addressed to a "Dr. Green", dated from 1872, 1 page, measuring 5.5" x 8.25" Choice Extremely Fine. His Letter is in regards to his being unavailable for a meeting due to a a prior engagement. The bold "Cyrus W. Field" Signature upon clean bright period paper that is extremely attractive and vivid for display.
Cyrus West Field (1819 " 1892), was an American businessman and financier who led the Atlantic Telegraph Company, the company that successfully laid the first telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean in 1858. The cable broke down three weeks afterward.
Field's activities brought him into contact with a number of prominent persons on both sides of the Atlantic " including William Ewart Gladstone, the British Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister). Field's communications with Gladstone would become important in the middle of the American Civil War, when three letters he received from Gladstone between November 27, 1862 and December 9, 1862 caused a furor, because Gladstone appeared to express support of the secessionist southern states in forming the Confederate States of America.
In 1866, Field laid a new, more durable trans-Atlantic cable which provided almost instant communication across the Atlantic. On his return to Newfoundland, he grappled the cable he had attempted to lay the previous year and which had parted in mid-ocean, reattached it to new wire, thus allowing for a second, backup wire for communication. In December 1884, the Canadian Pacific Railway named the community of Field, British Columbia, Canada in his honor. Bad investments left Field bankrupt at the end of his life.