Opening the Cape Cod Canal

This sterling silver commemorative medal marks the opening of the Cape Cod Canal in 1914, a project that transformed Sandwich and Cape Cod.

The medal connects the canal to a much older history of travel across the Sandwich isthmus. Its inscription references the “first traffic across isthmus” in 1627, when Plymouth colonists established the Aptucxet Trading Post in Sandwich and carried goods between Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay to avoid the dangerous trip around the outer Cape.

For centuries, people imagined a canal through this narrow strip of land. When it finally opened in 1914, the canal reshaped transportation, commerce, and daily life across the region.

Given to the Sandwich Historical Society in 1958 by the family of resident engineer A. S. Ackerman, the medal reflects both the ambition of the project and Sandwich’s long connection to movement, trade, and engineering.