Panama Canal Museum

2004 Roosevelt Medal

On November 16, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt gave a speech to a large gathering of Canal workers in Cristobal during his official visit to the Canal Zone to inspect the progress of the Canal’s construction. He was so impressed by their work that he told them, “I feel that to each of you has come an opportunity such as is vouchsafed to but a few in each generation. I shall see if it is not possible to provide for some little memorial, some work, some badge which will always distinguish the man who did his work well on the Isthmus, just as the button of the Grand Army distinguishes the man who did his work well in the civil War.”

With these words, Theodore Roosevelt initiated the plan which was to honor the participants of the Great Panama Canal Undertaking. The badge of distinction took the Form of the Roosevelt Medal, or, as it was called in the early days, the Canal Medal. It was presented to employees of the Isthmian Canal Commission and the Panama Canal Railroad working in Panama during the construction of the Canal, who were American citizens and who served with their government for two years of satisfactory service between May 4, 1904, and December 31, 1914.

The medal was designed by artist Francis D. Millet, who later was to lose his life in the sinking of the Titanic. The medals were made from nearly 1000 pounds of staybolts taken from the old locomotives, elevators and railroad cars left behind in Panama by the French when they abandoned the Canal project.

On each medal was engraved the name of the recipient, the dates of service for which the medal was awarded, and a number which placed the recipients in order of their employment date. In addition to the medal, a bar was issued for every two years of additional service. At the end of the construction period, there had been issued 7,391 Roosevelt Medals; 3,993 First Bars; 1,865 Second Bars; 636 Third Bars; 41 Fourth Bars; indicating that only 41 Americans worked the entire ten-year construction period.

Theodore Roosevelt summed up the contribution of Construction-day workers and the great achievement that was the Panama Canal when he said, “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the string man stumbled, or where the doer of deed could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes up short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.”

This ornament was designed and created by the Panama Canal Museum on 2004 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the beginning of the construction of the Panama Canal, and to pay tribute to the thousands of men and women who toiled and sacrificed under the most adverse conditions to make the Canal a reality. Those brave, courageous and dedicated individuals entered the arena where few dared to go; survived the hardships and the death and disease that everyone faced in the unknown jungles of Panama; and built a legacy for generations of their descendants who can proudly proclaim their connection to that incredible achievement.

The Roosevelt Medal was their badge of courage and the Panama Canal is their monument.