Panama Canal Photograph Album Including 38 Large Format Photographs And More Compiled By Steam Shovel Operator John L. Davies

JOHN L DAVIES

Publication: John L Davies, Photographer & Compiler, 1914, Panama Canal Zone

Panama Canal Zone, ca. 1914. 10 x 12". Coarse cloth covers with 38 large (7 x 9 1/2") photographs depicting the work on the canal, plus other large and numerous smaller photographs, including a large photograph with a sign in back dated 1906 - 1911 of a hunting party in Panama -- including Davies -- with their trophies, Davies with his wife Lela in front of their Panama home, in their car, on horseback, with friends and other workers, landscapes, etc. There are numerous clippings from newspapers reporting Davies' activities, his talks -- "stereopticon lectures" with 200 stereopticon views -- on the Canal and the Panama natives given to civic and church groups and others. At one meeting, with 100 men from Youngstown and vicinity, Davies brought venison from a deer he shot in Panama. An exceptional album of original photographs documenting the building of the Panama Canal, compiled by steam shovel operator John L Davies of Girard, Ohio, who claimed the "world's record for having handled daily, monthly and yearly a greater quantity of material than any other steam shovel engineer," and doing so in record time, according to clippings tipped in. Davies worked on the Canal project for six years. He also was involved in leadership activities relating to the steam shovel unions. Cloth covers are worn and spine has separated, still interior is intact with many photographs captioned. Overall a good copy of pictures of a significant feat of engineering.

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