Folio album (ca. 33x26,5 cm or 13 x 10 ½ in). 19 card stock leaves. With 38 mounted original albumen photos, all ca. 18,5x23,5 cm (7 ¼ x 9 ¼ in) or slightly smaller. All but one photo with period pencil captions in English on the mounts. Period brown full morocco album; both boards with elaborate gilt- and blind-stamped ornaments; spine with gilt-tooled decorative borders; moire endpapers; all edges gilt. Binder’s green paper label (“E.W. James, Bookseller & Stationer, Newcastle on Tyne”) on the front pastedown endpaper. Mounts slightly waved and with occasional soiling, spine neatly repaired on the hinges, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a very good album of rare strong interesting photos.

Historically significant collection of large early original albumen photos showing the construction of the Panama Canal during the period of French management (1881-1889), as well as views of Colon, Panama City, Gatun village, Chagres River, &c. The initial construction of the sea-level canal between Colon and Panama City was carried out by the French "Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama,” whose President and main advocate was the famous developer of the Suez Canal, Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894). The contractors did dry excavation of the Central Divide at Culebra; dredges worked their way inland from the Atlantic and Pacific entrances. The machinery came from France, the United States and Belgium. The construction was overwhelmed by continuous slides of unstable earth banks and the high mortality of labourers and engineers due to malaria and yellow fever. Finally, in 1887, the management changed the project from the sea-level canal to the lake and lock system. Over the next two years, “some areas of the canal were nearly complete, the Panama Railroad was being rerouted away from the Cut, the first lock was nearly ready to begin installation, and preliminary work on a dam had been started” (The French Canal Construction/ Canal de Panama; https://pancanal.com/en/the-french-canal-construction/). Nevertheless, all French works in the Panama Isthmus were halted in 1889 after the funding ran out. The Compagnie Universelle was liquidated in 1894, and the construction of the Panama Canal was completed by the United States in 1904-1914.

This album was most likely compiled during the last years of French construction of the canal after the lake-and-locks project had been adopted. Fourteen photos of the construction show dredges and French clapet boats digging near Mindi (between Colon and future Gatun locks), excavation of “Ecluse No. 1” near Bohio, American dredges “New York” and “Dengler,” excavation of Culebra Cut, Cucuracha Cut and Paraiso Cut, French clapet No. XII boat in the dry dock at Fox River (Colon), Pedro Miguel (one of two future locks on the Pacific side of the Canal), &c. Several photos feature auxiliary rail tracks, train engines and cargo platforms.

The album also contains sixteen large photos of Colon, including several views of the historic town core of Aspinwall, showing the French consul’s house (note the sign “Vice-Consul de France” attached to the second-floor patio), Garfield House with the monument to the builders of the Panama Railroad (William H. Aspinwall, John S. Stephens, Henry Chauncey), Washington House (the old building of the “Washington Hotel,” constructed in 1870, altered in 1905-1908, rebuilt in 1910-1913), Colonel Reeve’s House, “Legnadier & James House” with “Co. Interoceanique Office” (evidently, the office of "Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama”), office of the American consul, “French hospital,” waterfront and beach, &c. There are also photos of Front Street (with railway tracks and trains, “Gran Hotel Roma,” “4th of July Saloon” with a waving American flag, &c.), Count Lesseps Palace and the statue of Christopher Columbus, a scene with Jamaican labourers departing from “Panama Rail Road Co’s Pier No. 4,” “cocoa nut tree walk” and a birds-eye view of the city “from P.R.R. freight office.”

Four photos of Panama City include two views of the Cathedral Plaza (modern-day Plaza Independencia) with Metropolitan Cathedral Basilica of Santa Maria la Antigua, Grand Hotel (built in 1874, modern-day Central Hotel), the Bishop’s Palace and surrounding buildings. The other two photos show the city harbour and Panama Bay with Ancon Hill in the background and a scene of bull baiting on Plaza Santa Ana (with the Church of Santa Ana in the background). There are also interesting views of Gatun village and Chagres River, Culebra station of Panama railroad (now Panama Canal Railway) and a group portrait of native Panamanians posing in front of their house “on River Chagres.” The uncaptioned photo shows the Basilica and Convent of San Francisco in Quito; note the missing tops of the spires, destroyed during the earthquake in 1868.

Overall an important collection of large, well-preserved original photos of the French construction of the Panama Canal, and views of Colon, Panama Railroad, and Panama City in the late 1880s.

A list of pencil captions (all spelling is original):

Christobal Colon view, Count de Lesseps Palace at Mouth of Canal; French Consul Quarters, Aspinwall Beach; Garfield House, P.R.R.Co., Aspinwall Beach; Washington House, P.R.R.Co., Aspinwall Beach; [Legnadier?] & James house, Co. Interoceanique office, Aspinwall Beach; Col. Reeve’s quarters & beach, Aspinwall; Aspinwall statue & beach view; Col. Reevel’s quarters & Am. Consul’s office, Aspinwall Beach; Front Street, Colon, looking north; Front Street, Colon, looking south; Jamaica laborers’ departure to Kingston on 9th Mch. 1889 pr. “Moselle”; Christobal Colon, Cocoa nut tree walk; Count de Lessepps Palace, Christobal Colon; Canal Cut at Mindi; Ecluse No. 1, Bohio; Amr. Dredge “New York,” Canal Cut at Gatun; Culebra Cut, Canal Co., view No. 1; Culebra Cut, Canal Co., view No. 2; Culebra Cut, Canal Co., view No. 3; Cucuracha Cut, Canal Co., lock No. 6; Pedro Miguel Canal Co., view from Paraiso (west); Paraiso Cut, Canal Co., view 1; Paraiso Cut, Canal Co., excavator, view 2; Plaza Cathedral, Panama; Plaza St. Anna, Panama, “Bull baiting”; Grand Central Hotel & Bishop’s Palace, Panama; Bay of Panama; French Hospital, “Aspinwall beach”; Birds Eye View of Colon from P.R.R. freight house; View of Front Street, Colon; French dredge at Mindi; Canal Co. dry dock, Fox River; Native scene on River Chagres; Village of Gatun & River Chagres; Amr. Dredge “Dengler” at Canal, Pena Blanca; Culebra, Canal Co. Cut, No. 2; Culebra Station.