Panama Canal

This is one of a series of reports and maps from the Governor of the Panama Canal between 1906 and 1914, printed by the Government Printing Office. The full title of the map is Map of Panama, Showing Canal Zone & Water Shed of Rio Chagres. To accompany the Annual Report of the Commission, Culebra C.Z., September, 1909. This particular map was printed in 1909, detailing advances in the Porto Bello rock plant, Gatun locks, and further information about construction and engineering of the Canal.

“Dear Reader: If you have visited California, you will find nothing in these pages to interest you; if you have not, they may serve to kill an idle hour." With this bit of stark understatement, the reader is introduced to California Illustrated, a journal published in 1852. This book chronicles the author’s journey with a group of travelers making their way to California. There’s whale spotting, a shipwide illness, and the travelers' arrival at the Islands of Turks and Caicos—and that’s just in the first chapter.