Canal Zone Library-Museum

A Register of Its Panama Collection in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Karen Linn Femia with the assistance of Kathleen Kelly and Scott McLemee

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2006

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2006

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms006036

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Microfilm:

Preferred Citation:

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

The Panama Collection of the Canal Zone Library-Museum was transferred from the Panama Canal Commission to the Library of Congress in 1978.

The Panama Collection of the Canal Zone Library-Museum was arranged and described in 1993. The oversize series was reorganized and the register revised in 2006.

Some materials from the collections were sent to the Library's Prints and Photographs, Geography and Map, and Hispanic divisions.

The status of copyright in the unpublished writings in the Panama Collection of the Canal Zone Library-Museum is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).

A microfilm edition of part of these papers is available on eight reels. Consult a reference librarian in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary loan.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number or reel number, Panama Collection of the Canal Zone Library-Museum, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Scope and Content Note

The Panama Collection of the Canal Zone Library-Museum spans the years 1804-1977. The bulk of the material dates from the second half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. Documents are in French, Spanish, and English. The collection was gathered in Panama by the Canal Zone Library-Museum, which is associated with the United States Panama Canal Commission. Due to the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 with the Republic of Panama, which transferred the canal from the United States to Panama at the end of the twentieth century, the commission decided to transfer the special collections of the Library-Museum to the Library of Congress. As the manuscript collection of another institution, the material from the Library-Museum is a diverse set of papers generated by many individuals and organizations. Most of the files relate to the involvement of foreign individuals and organizations in the planning and eventual construction of a Panamanian interoceanic canal. Also included is material on the Panama Railroad, various business and real estate interests in Panama, and the social and cultural life of the Canal Zone. There is a tremendous range in the types of documents in the collection, including correspondence, diaries, memoirs, mementos, legal files, property deeds and titles, contracts, financial ledgers, technical drawings, and ephemera relating to social clubs.

The collection has been arranged into four series. The first series, Personal Papers, contains mostly diaries, memoirs, and correspondence, with the largest part consisting of the papers of the de Sablá family. The first member of this French family to reside in Panama arrived in the 1840s from the French Caribbean colony of Guadeloupe. The family owned a bakery and a large tract of land called Bernardino in Panama, and members became involved in many business interests: the Panama Railroad Company, Panama Water Works, canal ventures, a telegraph company, and mining. In 1932 heirs of the family, who were United States citizens, sued the government of Panama for damages done to family property. Most of the de Sablá family papers consist of legal papers and supporting documents for United States ex rel de Sablá v. Panama. A set of maps from the de Sablá family papers has been tranferred to the Geography and Map Division. Other highlights of the Personal Papers series include a diary by William Henry Sidell, the principal engineer of the Panama survey of 1849, and memoirs and correspondence by several canal construction workers.

The Organizations File, the second series in the collection, contains records of social clubs, institutions, and businesses in Panama and in the Canal Zone. Included are materials from the Isthmian Canal Commission and two nineteenth-century French canal companies, the Compagnie nouvelle du canal de Panama and the Compagnie universelle du canal interocéanique. Many technical drawings and reports are among the records of the French companies. Records of the Canal Zone Baseball League, Isthmian Historical Society, and Natural History Society may also be found in this series.

The Canal Zone Library-Museum had organized some of its manuscript material at the item level. These items have been placed with other disparate materials in a series of Miscellaneous Manuscripts. Included are individual pieces of correspondence, writings, printed matter, ephemera from cultural events, mementos, and congressional testimonies of eleven officers of the Isthmian Canal Commission. Mounted in a memorial volume dedicated to George W. Goethals, the chief engineer of the Panama Canal, are many fine photoprints of the canal's construction. Notable correspondents include Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ferdinand de Lesseps.

The final series in the collection consists of a set of booklets concerning legal and legislative matters in Panama and the Canal Zone. Copies of the title pages have been arranged alphabetically for use as an index.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in five series:

• Personal Papers, 1804-1977, n.d.
• Organizations File, 1849-1976, n.d.
• Miscellaneous Manuscripts, 1806-1976, n.d.
• Booklets, ca. 1900-1976
• Oversize, 1814-1970, n.d.

Description of Series

Container List