Identity elements
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
Album of around 810 original gelatin silver photographs of Panama
Date(s)
- circa 1943-1945 (Creation)
Extent
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
"A very extensive collection of over 800 silver gelatin photographs of Panama from 1943 to 1945, likely compiled by the wife of an American military officer stationed there during World War II. The album contains views of Panamanian cities and environs, including Panama City and Colón. Photographs of Panama City show street scenes (Avenida Central, a lottery event, buildings with signs reading 'Tropical Radio Telegraph Co.,' 'Cecilia,' 'Club Nocturno,' etc.), Plaza Cinco de Mayo, the former Central Railway station, the University of Panama, the National Lottery Building, the Palacio de las Garzas (presidential residence), the National Theatre of Panama, Santa Ana Church, San Francisco Church, Paseo de las Bovedas, the flat arch of the Santo Domingo Convent, and the ruins of Panama Viejo. Of Colón, they show Mount Hope Cemetery, Hotel Washington, the Municipal Park, and street views. Thirty four photographs show Carnival in Panama City in February 1944, and 28 photographs show the 'Sacred Heart Procession' near the San Francisco Church in July 1944. There are also photos of Chitre (exterior and interior of St. John Baptist Cathedral, a plaza, a cemetery, 'Hotel International,' and a public market), Portobelo ('Modern Portobelo,' the local ruins, a cemetery, and Church of San Felipe), U.S. military housing in Diablo, Santa Clara (the beach, cabins, and huts), Gamboa ('Gold school,' a country club, U.S. military housing, views of Chagres River), Parque Municipal Summit in Central Panama, and Barro Colorado Island (biological research island in the middle of the Panama Canal).
Over 40 photographs show the Guna, an indigenous people of Panama, in a village likely in the San Blas Islands (northeast coast of Panama). The photographs include street scenes of the village, Guna women and children with the compiler and her friends, men swimming, dugout canoes, and a signpost reading 'sociedad eclesistica [church membership].' Other photographs are of the compiler and her friends and family in Panama and Utah. The piece of ephemera is a print caption previously attached to a loosely inserted group portrait of the attendees of a party, titled 'M.I.A Party, Canal Zone Branch, Nov. 7, 1944.' The caption identifies all people in the photograph as well as the photographer.
Overall, an extensive and lively album showing Panama during the latter half of World War II." --description from Wayfarer's Bookshop.