Happy Labor Day! These photos document the 1908 and 1910 Labor Day excursions of a family living at the Panama Canal during construction. Unfortunately, we don’t know their names but are grateful to the donor who made sure these treasures found a good home here with us.

The caption on the back of the photo above reads, “Starting for Old Panama Labor Day 1908 Government Break”. Gift of Barbara L. Daniels. II.2022.80.4.

Take a cue from this family’s celebration and enjoy any trips or relaxing moments you can today. (However, I don’t recommend wool skirts on the beach and ties might not be necessary)

Do you recognize anyone in the photos? Some captions include references to Mr. W and Mrs. W so that could be a hint to solving the mystery of who this construction era family is.

In April 1913 pilot Robert G. Fowler and cameraman Ray Duhem took the first non-stop flight across Panama, all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. Their adventure was big news on the Isthmus, and was covered in the local press for the duration of their three week stay. In addition to being the first to accomplish the flight, they shot six reels of film that were to be released in theaters.

Things didn’t exactly go as planned…but lets start at the beginning.

After becoming the first to fly coast-to-coast across the United States in 1912, Fowler started preparing for his flight across Panama. He and Jay Gage, a Los Angeles aeronautical engineer and aviator, collaborated on the design of a more powerful single propeller tractor biplane. Three significant design features were the passenger seat situated in-front of the pilot which would house the cameraman, the greater span of the upper planes on the wings, and the segmented manufacturing so that it could easily be crated for shipping to Panama. Because there were no airfields on either side of the route, wooden pontoons were affixed to the bottom, transforming it in to a hydroplane.

Note the dotted lines in the drawing which indicate where the planes of the wings could be cut for crating.¹

Days before his departure Fowler learned the high-test fuel that the plane needed was not available in Panama. He quickly asked the Union Oil Company of California to ship 50 gallons on one of their tankers headed that way. After his two week trip, Fowler arrived to learn that the heat in the cargo hold had caused the tin cans to rupture and his fuel had evaporated. Luckily, the Panama Fire Department donated some of their own high-test fuel so the flight could continue as planned.

The airplane was transported to Bella Vista beach where it was assembled. Fowler commented on the dramatic Pacific side tides, “One big trouble on the beach I had set up as base was the large tide movement. At this point there was a 30 foot tide change – when the tide was out my plane was a quarter mile from the water.”²

Fowler began test flights shortly after his arrival which were reported in local publications. Some flights were more harrowing than others and included mid-air stalls, a flooded and broken engine, near collisions with the shore, and a nude Duhem out on the pontoon spinning the propeller to help Fowler restart the engine. The newspapers didn’t report on many of those details, so to learn more about the test flight mis-adventures read The Life of Robert G. Fowler by Maria Schell Burden.

Use the left and right arrows to move through the slideshow of clippings from the Robert J. Karrer Papers.

Fowler and Duhem made their historic trip on April 27th, 1913. While flying over Culebra Cut they were captured in the background of a photograph.

As they approached the end of their hour and 45 minute long flight, right over Cristobal, they ran out of gas and the engine stopped. Fowler was successful in guiding the plane to a landing spot in shallow water.

The image on the right is taken from America’s Triumph at Panama by Ralph Emmett Avery, 1913. Come check out the book in our Latin American and Caribbean Collection Library, https://ufl-flvc.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01FALSC_UFL/6ad6fc/alma990227615780306597

Below is some of the footage that Duhem shot from the plane. You can watch them fly over Canal Zone towns and the construction site of the Canal. At minute 10:23 you can see the moment they run out of gas and the propeller stops in the film’s frame!

Near the end locals come out to greet them and help pull the plane on shore. The young ones have fun waving at the camera, just like they do today.

Despite the harrowing achievement, the real drama was yet to come.

Charles Kellogg Field was the editor of Sunset The Pacific Monthly in April 1914 when the article about Fowler and Duhem’s flight was published. He and other aviation enthusiasts had concerns that Congress did not fully appreciate the importance and potential danger of airplanes. The author of the article, Riley E. Scott, was a West Point graduate and bombing expert who realized that their flight exposed a weakness in the Canal’s defenses. The cover caused quite a stir.

The image on the left is the cover of Sunset The Pacific Monthly, April 1914 issue. II.2019.999.249.

Three months after publication, at the request of the War Department, Fowler, Duhem, Scott, and Field were arrested and charged with spying by violating a statute that prohibited sharing military information. While filming the Canal’s construction Duhem had also filmed military installations. Scott included a still image of the future site for the 16-inch gun on Naos Island off the coast of Panama City in the article with a dramatic caption.

The men appeared in court and explained that they had been granted permission prior to the flight by both the War Department in Washington and by Colonel George C. Goethals, Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal construction. The case was dropped a year later.

The image on the right is taken from The Life and Times of Robert G. Fowler by Maria Schell Burden.

Fowler’s plane is on display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, VA. (minus the wooden pontoons damaged during the crash landing)

Two other efforts had been made to fly over Panama by different parties: O.G. Simmons, Al Welsh, and James H. Hare from Collier’s Weekly and Jesse Seligman. Neither group attempted the crossing. The Collier’s group cited lack of viable landing sites as a critical part of their decision. Severe air crosscurrents and wind were also dangerous elements. Fowler experienced the significant winds first hand on his flight. In one event an air current flipped the plane around so that it was flying in the opposite direction, and in another an air pocket over Culebra sent the plane plunging 300 feet straight down.

These images are taken from an article James H. Hare wrote in the Aero Club of America Bulletin called, “Why We Did Not Fly Across the Panama Isthmus.”

1. Image taken from The Life and Times of Robert G. Fowler by Maria Schell Burden. ↩︎
2. The Life and Times of Robert G. Fowler by Maria Schell Burden. ↩︎

Some amazing treasures recently came back from the University of Florida Library’s Digital Support Services. Although they are all photographs, some items took two people to carry because of their incredible size – they are 6 feet long! (Thanks to Michele in our Grand Reading Room for being the second pair of hands)

Many of the photographs are images taken by E.O (Eugene Omar) Goldbeck, a commercial photographer who specialized in panoramic photography. He is know for using a Cirkut, a rotating panoramic camera, and for his images of military bases and personnel. In addition to Goldbeck’s name, look for his company “National Photo and News Service”.

Goldbeck first visited the Panama Canal in 1914, and credited that trip with his introduction to the full potential of the panoramic format. Afterwards, he traveled to Panama every few years and stayed there for about three months each time. He took photographs of the U.S. military personnel and a few scenic views of the Canal and surrounding cities.

His panoramic photos are well known and easily recognizable for their often complex arrangements of people into formations. To capture these expansive photos he often had to climb tall towers, including the 505 foot tall Navy wireless tower in Panama.

During the 1914 trip Goldbeck stayed at the Army-Navy YMCA in Cristobal and purchased cigarettes there to use as trade currency on an excursion to the San Blas Islands. He exchanged 60 cigarettes for 60 parakeets which he released in the courtyard of the YMCA when he returned. He said that when he came back years later, there were still parakeets living in the courtyard’s palm trees.

On another trip to Panama in 1930, Goldbeck photographed the first airmail flight from the Canal Zone to Washington D.C. and New York City – famously flown by Charles Lindbergh. Goldbeck shot video footage of the postmaster giving Lindbergh the mail and took still photos of the airplane taking off. The plane then came back and picked up the film, transporting it as part of the mail delivery. That same evening, the footage Goldbeck created was featured as part of the news broadcast about the flight.

We are fortunate to have these beautiful and important Goldbeck photographs in the collection. Thank you to our Conservation and Preservation Department and Digital Support Services for helping us preserve them!

Have you seen Goldbecks’s photographs before? Was your family member stationed in the Canal Zone in the early 20th century and possibly featured in one of the images?

The book The Panoramic Photography of Eugene O. Goldbeck by Clyde W. Burleson and E. Jessica Hickman is a wonderful place to learn more about his adventures and photographic process. You can also hear an interesting story about Goldbeck and his photographs on an episode of Antiques Roadshow. https://www.pbs.org/video/appraisal-e-o-goldbeck-panoramic-photographs-vofq3d/