[Panama Canal]: Foote, William C.:

[Collection of Original Photographs Documenting Construction of the Panama Canal, with Later Military Documents Related to Major William C. Foote's Service with the Coast Artillery Corps].

[Balboa, Panama Canal Zone: 1914-1936]. Eighty-four black-and-white or sepia-toned photographs, each about 8 x 10 inches, many with typed or manuscript captions on verso, plus thirty-two typed documents, some signed. Moderate edge wear, occasional minor marginal chipping to photographs. Mostly minor wear to documents. Very good. Item #5953

A striking collection of photographs picturing construction of the Panama Canal during the years of the First World War. Many of the photographs are dated between 1914 and 1916, and almost all capture construction of the Panama Canal, mainly around Dry Dock #1 at the Balboa and Pacific Terminals. Many of the photographs are captioned either typed or in manuscript on the verso, providing valuable information on the settings of these images. Most of the images were taken from an elevated viewpoint, from area towers, offering unusual detail of the construction sites in the Balboa area "before flooding" of the canal, with some images showing the canal "ready to be flooded;" the images taken at ground level also exhibit the sheer size and depth of the project, with human figures dwarfed by the canal walls.

A healthy number of images feature local workers of African descent engaged in manual labor on the walls and in the flat bottom of the canal. These workers are managed by a coterie of white subjects. In fact, one of the more striking images speaks volumes about the literal separation between the managers and laborers in the Canal Zone. The photograph is a group shot featuring seventeen white managers standing in the foreground in front of a group of twenty-two Black workers.

A sampling of the settings and activity revealed in the captions for the photographs include "Dy Dock #1 -- Entrance," "Placing granite in the hollow quoin -- Dry Dock No. 1, Balboa," "General view of Dry Dock #1 -- from the boom of Unloader Tower," "Progress of concrete in south wall as of Oct. 20, 1914," "Head wall of Dry Dock #1," "Reinforcing around the suction chamber Dry Dock #1," "Dry Dock looking from the head wall west towards the sea," "D.D. excavation looking eastward toward headwall of the dock from the Coffer Dam," "Reinforcement in and around cross culverts at the west and end of Dry Dock #1," "Dry Dock #1 one month after commencing concrete work in the south wall," "Dry Dock No. 1 Pumping Plant -- Erecting 54-inch Check Valves -- Looking west," "General view of construction progress around pump well and discharge culvert -- Dry Dock," "Dry Dock Gate -- South Leaf -- Heel casting after wedges have been placed and rivets driven," "Reinforced concrete pontoons -- Preparing to pour concrete in No. 2 pontoon," and "Placing the last girder on dock gate, Dry Dock No. 1, Balboa."

The photographs are accompanied by a group of more than thirty military documents relating to the service of Major William C. Foote in the mid-1930s. Most of the documents concern Major Foote's assignment to the Coast Artillery Corps at Fort Amador in the Canal Zone in Balboa. Both the photographs and documents were found in a large envelope marked "Personal File Major William C. Foote." Finding the Panama Canal photographs along with Major Foote's later paperwork indicate that he probably acquired the photographs while serving in the Canal Zone and the material stayed together all these years.

Price: $1,750