Photographs of living quarters and construction, 1908-1933

This collection consists of photographs and printed materials concerning the Panama Canal and the Isthmus of Panama, collected by William E. Tragsdorf. Series I, the photographs, is made up of three small albums, 5-1/2 x 7 inches, and sixteen large, mostly 8 x 10 inch, loose photographs, all black and white. The small albums are numbered 1, 2, and 6 and are marked with particular dates in 1905 or 1906. Most of the small photographs are marked “W.E.T.,” indicating that they were taken by Tragsdorf. Two that lack this mark may be of the photographer himself. The photographs in these albums, sixteen in each, are scenes of places and people in Panama that give an idea of how the area looked before the canal was built. The men pictured in business attire are obviously individuals who came to work or visit during the construction. Most of the 8 x 10 photographs document stages of the project. Those that are dated are marked 1908, 1910, 1911, 1922, and 1933.

Series II, a scrapbook, contains material collected, apparently by Tragsdorf, in keeping with his lifelong interest in the Isthmus of Panama. The earliest document is a photocopy of a fourteen-page pamphlet titled “A Few Words for the Traveller over the Isthmus of Panama,” apparently published in 1851 with a topographic map of the area. A second photocopy is of a seventeen-page narrative by Julius H. Pratt titled “To California by Panama in ’49.” “49” in the title refers to the 1849 gold rush. Next are eleven 8-1/2 x 10-1/2 inch color plates showing ships passing through the completed canal and scenes around it. Another item is a twenty-two-page pamphlet, 7-3/4 x 8-7/8 inches, titled “Following the Floating Road: One of the World’s Greatest Travel Thrills.” One of its photographs is dated January 1933. The final item is an article from The New York Times Magazine of August 12, 1934, titled “In 1934 as in 1914, the Canal is an Epic.”

The materials in the Tragsdorf Panama Canal Zone Photograph Collection reflect not only fascination with and appreciation of the engineering feat that the building of the canal was, but also a deep interest in the history of attention paid to the Isthmus of Panama. Along with photographs taken by Tragsdorf himself are a photocopy of an 1851 text written for travelers over the Isthmus and another of a narrative about going to California in 1849 by way of Panama. Altogether the collection documents an individual’s lifelong fascination with being part of the work that transformed the Canal Zone into the pathway of the Panama Canal.