The George Hartsough Panama Canal Photographs, held in the collection of the Northwestern University Transportation Library, have been added to the library’s Digital Collections portal, giving researchers an opportunity to explore this unique and historically rich collection of photographs from the construction of the Panama Canal.
Worker standing above Panama Canal construction
Consisting of 153 photographs and 30 postcards, this collection was donated to the Transportation Library in 2022. Hartsough was an engineer who worked on the construction of the Panama Canal from 1909 to 1914, the year the canal opened. These photographs were brought back to the U.S. and remained in a box for many years. They document his time there, and, also, offer a personal view into the construction of the canal.
Construction of Panama Canal locks.
The photos show both construction sites of the canal and more leisurely photos of towns and people in Panama at the time, including Hartsough himself. Parades, family portraits, and days on the beach are all shown in the photos.
Three unidentified people posing at the site of construction of Panama Canal locks
Unidentified children on a porch, Panama
One of the challenges with processing this collection was determining which locations and people were pictured. Hartsough was one of three people who could be identified. The other two were his roommate Carter, who was only identifiable due to the writing on the back of the photograph, and the queen of the carnival parade Isabel Espinosa de Vallarino, who is pictured on a postcard. Every other person remains currently unidentified.
But even those photos which remain completely unidentifiable in location and subject are valuable in their own right. A photo of a man standing on a platform above the construction of the canal is strikingly beautiful. Shots of bodies of water and people walking along beaches capture pieces of leisure in the midst of a huge infrastructural project, led by colonial forces, which brought people from all over the world to Panama.
Unidentified body of water, Panama
Person standing knee-deep in water in front of a rusted ship, Panama
Collapsed construction equipment
These photos also are an exploration of the complexities of the canal itself. Collapsed cranes and workers clearing rubble from an enormous lock show how logistically complex the construction was. Also on display is the complexity of the social and racial divides in Panama at that time. As a white, American engineer, Hartsough was in a position of privilege compared to the many indigenous and Black people pictured in the photographs, who were paid less, worked in more dangerous conditions, and were provided with inferior housing. These photos both offer a glimpse into the lives of the Black and indigenous people pictured and are also unavoidably from a white perspective.
Oxen-pulled cart on a dirt road, Panama
George Hartsough and two unidentified people with a large mortar and pestle in front of an Indigenous thatched-roof building.
We can never know the exact relationships Hartsough had with the different people in his photographs, but they are part of a larger context of international relations playing out in Panama, which continues to shape the country even to this day.
Group portrait with George Hartsough and unidentified adults and children, Panama
Additionally, there is an intimacy created through the viewing of this collection. It’s impossible to know Hartsough, but there is a certain closeness created by viewing the photos he decided to keep from this time in his life. A family is photographed again and again, often with Hartsough. Hartsough is shown at work. Hartsough is shown on the beach. He’s shown often with a camera strapped to him. He’s shown in his room. He’s shown in a checkered suit. He’s shown smiling in front of a store counter. There’s no way to know his relationships with those photographed, or how he felt about his five years spent in Panama, but these photos are a window into knowing some sliver of him captured by a camera’s shutter.
George Hartsough stands in profile setting up a camera on a tripod.
George Hartsough and other person on Beach, Panama
George Hartsough stands in checkered suit and hat facing the camera.
George Hartsough poses at the counter of a shop
Hartsough went back to his hometown in Nebraska in 1914 and married Mona Cleary. They then traveled together to Peru where he worked as a mining engineer and died as the result of a mining accident in 1915 at the age of 33. While it is impossible to ask him why he captured and saved these specific photos, this collection carries on a new life by sharing insight into this time.
Three unidentified people with a carriage, Panama
For more information on the Transportation Library’s services or collections, please visit our website or contact us at transportationlibrary@northwestern.edu. You can also find us on Instagram and Twitter.