Panama American
This project, which is part of the Explorations series, was funded by the Janice G. Grimison and Edward “Ted” W. Scott Library Memorial Fund. The fund also supported the digitization of decades of the Panama American newspaper, part of the Panama Canal Museum Collection.
By: Summer Bias and Betsy Bemis, 2026
Of the Panama Canal Museum Collection’s vast catalog of online resources, the Panama American newspaper is by far the most-used, having been viewed nearly 14,000,000 times in the past decade.
Founded as an English-language daily in October 1925 by Nelson Rounsevell, an American from New York state, the Panama American became arguably the “newspaper of record” for the Canal Zone. Asserting an emphasis on independence and impartiality, the paper attempted to meet the needs of the Canal Zone and surrounding area’s distinct communities, covering news applicable to American Zonians, Panamanians, and West Indians. In 1929, the paper debuted a Spanish-language section which blossomed into an independent sister publication, El Panamá América, extremely popular in its own right.
The University of Florida has digitized the majority of the paper’s issues from the 1920s, 1940s, and 1950s, creating an invaluable resource for the study of the Canal Zone and Panama.
This project highlights some of the major milestones in the history of the Panama American.
Nelson Rounsevelle
The Panama American’s founder, Nelson Rounsevell (1877-1948), lived a colorful life, which he recounts in his autobiography, The Life Story of “N.R.”: Or, 40 Years of Rambling, Gambling, and Publishing. He spent his early adult years gambling and bouncing from career to career.
“In the ten years since I had left home, I had failed successively as a farmer, book agent, school teacher, lawyer, Justice of the Peace, insurance agent, beer salesman, ice man, theater proprietor, and politician. I had failed at everything except poker playing and it would have been better for my future if I had failed at that too…
– Nelson Rounsevell
Rounsevell first arrived in Panama in April 1914, when he was about thirty-six years old, with one dime in his pocket and no real plan. Per the gambler’s superstition to never spend your last dime, he ceremoniously tossed it into Balboa Harbor and landed a job as a carpenter in the Panama Canal’s Mechanical Division within ten hours. He resigned from work on the Canal only three months later and went to South America due to his “irresistible urge to ramble.”
Left: Cartoon by Mike Walsh of Nelson Rounsevell in More Cartoons of Colorful Canal Zone Characters.
After spending time gambling in Peru, Rounsevell took a job as an advertising salesman for the West Coast Leader, an illustrated English weekly owned by C. N. Griffis. Before long, he began writing articles for the paper as well.
By May 1, 1924, when Rounsevell was about forty-seven years old, he had purchased The South Pacific Mail, a newspaper in Valparaiso, Chile.
Unfortunately, he was soon accused of being a threat to the Chilean government due to his ties to the West Coast Leader, which had published anti-Chilean articles. The controversy faded slowly and Rounsevell was able to turn a profit on the paper when he sold it just nine months after purchasing it.
Right: Illustration of Nelson Rounsevell in 1924 by a Chilean cartoonist, The Life Story of “N.R.”; Or, 40 Years of Rambling, Gambling, and Publishing, 1933.
Rounsevell returned to Panama in early 1925 and decided to start a new paper: the Panama Times.
Panama Times
The Panama Times launched in February 1925 with John K. Baxter as its feature writer. Baxter, a Panama Canal old-timer, had a reputation for “treading on Isthmian toes. The more important they were, the better [Baxter] liked it.”
Left: Panama Times, April 25, 1925. Panama Canal Museum Collection. 2014.78.1
According to Rounsevell, this was both a blessing and a curse: the controversies lost the paper thousands of dollars as advertisers pulled out, but Baxter’s “clear reasoning, fearless attacking, bitter denouncing and clever entertaining” won over the community, and his reputation was what the Panama American was later built upon.
Right: Cartoon by Mike Walsh of John K. Baxter. From Macwalbax.
The Panama American
As a weekly, the Panama Times struggled to compete with the Star & Herald, Panama’s long-established daily, and finances were poor. In September 1925, Rounsevell decided to launch the Panama American as a daily with John K. Baxter as the editor. Their first issue came out on October 7, 1925, a “puny, eight-page, tabloid size sheet, containing nothing to startle, thrill or amuse anybody.”
Baxter debuted a column called “Pro and Con, Mostly Con” which would further increase his popularity.
The West Indian Section
The publishers of the Panama American recognized the disparate interests in the area: the Panamanians, the U.S. Citizens and Military, and the community of people and families that had come from islands in the Caribbean – at the time commonly called West Indians. After covering West Indian news along with news geared toward U.S. citizens for the first several months of publication, the Panama American inaugurated a West Indian Section in January 1926. Sidney Adolphus Young, who served as the West Indian Editor for the Star & Herald, was appointed as Editor of the West Indian Section and wrote the popular column “Sid Says.” His associate editor was Mr. Albert E. Bell.
The purpose of the Section was to highlight news particularly relevant to Panama’s West Indian community and the Black race in general, and to provide a space for the West Indian community to contribute their thoughts and opinions.
“The privilege of unfettered expression in the columns of the Panama American devoted to its interest, was accorded the West Indian colony through deep sense of human justice and the broadness of vision, beyond the narrow vista of race and color.”
– Sidney A. Young
Young’s tenure at the Panama American was short: he left the paper on May 30, 1928. His quick departure was reportedly due to a comment from the paper’s leadership that he would never be paid as much as his white counterparts. After resigning from the Panama American, Young went on to found the Panama Tribune, a weekly exclusively covering Panama’s West Indian community.
George Westerman, another prominent West Indian journalist, started his career at sixteen working for the Panama American as a sports commentator.
He later had his own column for the Panama American between 1932 and 1941. He also wrote for the Panama Tribune.
When Young passed away in 1959, Westerman purchased the Panama Tribune, becoming the owner and editor.
Left: Portrait of George Westerman c.1928. The New York Public Library Digital Collections.
Westerman was an important political voice in Panama, advocating for West Indian rights through his writings, political negotiations, and lecture tours in the United States.
Explore Young, Westerman, and the West Indian Section of the Panama American in the digital collection.
Or read Isthmian Echoes which includes articles from the West Indian Section of the Panama American from February 1926 – December 1927.
Money Troubles
During its early history, the Panama American faced near-constant financial difficulties. Nelson Rounsevell pushed the limits of the paper’s shoestring budget in an attempt to make the paper stand out among competitors. For instance, he experimented with chartering cars to deliver issues of the papers from Panama City to the other side of the isthmus first thing in the morning, so they could have their news earlier than ever before.
During their first year of business, the Panama American was rarely less than $1,000 in debt. Fed up with late payments, their printers, Benedetti Hnos., threatened to stop printing the paper unless they were paid upfront each month. To prove that the Panama American could survive, Rounsevell decided to try to pay Benedetti $100 upfront each day.
“And the different things I did to get that hundred would of themselves make a book of adventure, interspersed with some crime, a near tragedy or two and, occasionally a bit of comedy.”
– Nelson Rounsevell
The Panama Times was still in business at this time, and Rounsevell used advertising money from special issues like the Elks’ Holiday Edition to try to keep the Panama American afloat.
Left: Panama Times, January 2, 1927. Panama Canal Museum Collection.
By the end of 1926, the Panama American was struggling so much financially that they could not afford to pay salaries. The staff put in their notices to quit, but when the time came, none of them did. In the words of Rounsevell, “It was evident, even that early, that there was SOMETHING about the Panama American that could not be downed.”
On April 23, 1927, Rounsevell received word from their printers that the Panama American and the Panama Times would be suspended if payments were not made. Desperately low on money, the last issue of the Panama American was scheduled for April 30, 1927.
The announcement to suspend publication was accompanied by a list of items for sale from the company.
In his close-out essay, Editor John K. Baxter emphasized the need for an independent news outlet in Panama, something he and Rounsevell had prided themselves on in the making of the Panama American.
Clipping from the Pro and Con, Mostly Con section by John K. Baxter, Panama American, April 27, 1927.
The West Indian community also wrote letters to Editor Sidney A. Young, expressing disappointment at the Panama American‘s fate.
Clipping of letter written to editor Sidney Young. Panama American, April 30, 1927.
However, the suspension didn’t come. After announcing the final issue of the paper, the Panama American received over $3,000 in donations from readers to keep it going.
“One man, a complete stranger to me, came up to the counter with a check for $100…and I asked him what he wanted for it – pay-in-advance subscription, advertising or stock in the reorganized company. ‘I don’t want anything for it,’ he replied. ‘I owe it to you…I drive a car and used to have to pay 35 cents a gallon for gasoline. The Panama American raised enough hell with the trust to force the price down to 25 cents, so I figure that I owe you 10 cents for every gallon I have bought since.’”
– Nelson Rounsevell
Following his trend of going out on a financial limb, Rounsevell decided to raise money for a new venture just days after announcing the would-be suspension. These advertisements for the Panama American Publishing Company, a new printing plant which would be able to print its own papers, ran for about five months in 1927.
Above: Panama American, May 1, 1927 and August 1, 1927
New Plant
On August 14, 1927, the cornerstone of the new Panama American printing plant was laid. By the next month, the company had purchased its first linotype machines, quickly moving toward the purpose of the new venture: the ability for the paper to print its own work.
Around this time, the Panama American hired New Zealand-born Edward “Ted” Scott as an editorial desk assistant. Scott would later go on to become editor of the paper and author of the popular column, “Interesting if True.” More on Ted Scott’s adventures and mis-adventures with the newspaper later.
The first issue printed at the new plant went out on November 9, 1927, an experience which Nelson Rounsevell described as the worst of all his life’s tragedies and disappointments. The issue was very difficult to read, featuring uneven margins and illegible text.
Left: Page 2 from the Panama American, November 9, 1927.
While the quality of printing eventually improved, the Panama American’s new (expensive) venture was failing to make them money. Among the owners, Nelson Rounsevell, John K. Baxter, and Chester O. Olive, tensions were high. Baxter thought it was unethical to continue to sell shares of the company to individuals who could not afford to lose the money; Rounsevell thought continuing to sell shares was the only way to have a chance of saving the money already invested. Baxter refused to sign additional stocks, and the result was his split from the company at the end of 1927.
The Panama American continued to publish after Baxter’s departure, promoting Assistant Editor Pete Brennan to Editor. However, there was a uniqueness to Baxter’s persona that created many fans who were disappointed to see him go.
El Panamá América
“Although none of us fully realized it at the time, the most important step ever taken by the Panama American was the inauguration on January 1, 1929, of a Spanish Section.”
– Nelson Rounsevell, 1933
Nelson Rounsevell understood the necessity to serve more of Panama’s audience and had long wanted to include a Spanish-language complement to the Panama American but was too financially strained at the beginning of the paper’s history to manage it. As for hiring an Editor of the Section, Rounsevell considered only one man for the job: Dr. Harmodio Arias.
Dr. Arias was well-known and well-liked by the Panamanian public; he was the country’s foremost lawyer and a respected intellectual. Rounsevell and Arias had a pre-existing relationship, and Rounsevell knew Arias’s prestige could further elevate the paper.
The Panama American’s Spanish Section debuted on January 1, 1929, and as hoped, the Panama American quickly hit new readership benchmarks. The paper had never had over 4,000 subscribers, but with the inclusion of a Spanish Section, it reached 5,000 within a few months, stretching the limits of what the new plant could produce. Finally out of debt due to the increased readership, Rounsevell decided he had to again go out on a limb financially to push the paper forward. He purchased new equipment which could produce papers to a circulation of roughly 25,000.
Dr. Arias would later become the President of Panama. He served as acting president in 1931 and was elected in 1932, serving until 1936. Two years later, he became the owner of the Panama American Publishing Company, Inc., overseeing both the Panama American and El Panamá América, by then a separate entity.
“You learned early on if you worked [at the Panama American], that you could set your watch faithfully that at noon, each day, the Publisher/Owner, Dr. Harmodio Arias, would appear like clockwork, at the top step of the mezzanine floor that we occupied. Always meticulous, dressed in a white linen suit, a conservative pin-striped tie, with his hair brushed neatly back, exposing distinguished slivers of gray mixed in with the pitch black, Dr. Arias exuded strength and authority, a truly impressive figure.”
– Reporter/photographer Hindi Diamond
Independent Daily
From the beginning, the founders of the Panama American prided themselves on creating an independent paper, covering news without political influence. Throughout its history, the paper repeatedly clashed with political actors in the Canal Zone and Panama who attempted to quiet its opposition.
Within the first month of the Panama American’s existence, founder Nelson Rounsevell recalls being summoned, with Editor John K. Baxter, by Panama’s president Rodolfo Chiari, who accused the paper of being “an organ of hatred to create dissension in the country and otherwise disturb the peace.” He later threatened, according to Rounsevell, “what the government would do if the Panama American developed a tendency to criticize him or embarrass his administration.”
In 1926, while the Panama American was struggling financially, the paper’s printers, Benedetti Hnos., were pressured by the Panamanian government to stop printing it due to its criticisms of the government. Benedetti said they would either stop printing the Panama American or Rounsevell could sign an agreement stating that the paper would no longer publish anything about Panamanian politics, which Rounsevell was forced to accept.
However, as previously discussed, the paper opened its own printing plant a year later, eliminating the threat of being muzzled by a third party.
During Dr. Harmodio Arias’s presidency, Nelson Rounsevell received death threats due to his friendship with him. The paper even got word that there was a bomb threat on the offices and an undetonated bomb was found nearby.
The 1940s saw yet another challenge to the Panama American’s independence as a press: Ted Scott, then-Editor of the paper, was deported from Panama due to his writings about then-President Arnulfo Arias, brother of the owner of the paper, Harmodio Arias.
Ted Scott had arrived in Panama in January 1927, two years after the Panama American began printing. He was supposed to be traveling through as a lightweight boxer, but his ship arrived to Panama too late in the day to transit the Canal. By chance, while on shore, he ran into Buddy Saunders, a Panamanian boxer, who introduced him to a local fight promoter. Through boxing and the Sports Editor of the Panama American, Scott was introduced to Nelson Rounsevell and John Baxter. After boxing in Peru for a few months, Scott returned to Panama and started working at the Panama American as an editorial desk assistant. Scott quit the paper briefly but returned in 1932 as a correspondent in Colon, on the other side of the isthmus from the printing headquarters in Panama City. He eventually became Editor of the paper until his departure in 1941, when he was deported due to his critical writing of what he saw as Panama’s pro-Nazi government.
During this sojourn he worked throughout North and Central America, collaborating with the British Security Coordination (BCS) and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). He helped to establish Camp X, an important training location for British and American covert operations in Europe. Scott was possibly an agent in MI-5, and claimed in written accounts that he and Rounsevell were the first to uncover and report espionage in Panama during World War II. He returned to the Panama American briefly in 1948-1949.
Scott spent the 1950s in Cuba, and was a close friend of Colonel Fulgencio Batista, then President. His time there included serving as a firearms instructor for the police force and challenging his acquaintance Ernest Hemingway to a duel with pistols.
In 1959, Scott was arrested by Fidel Castro for counter-revolutionary activity. He credited his survival and release to the British ambassador who kept a near constant vigil outside his cell – no doubt payment for intelligence services Scott had provided during WWII and the decade he had spent on the island. Castro kicked Scott out of Cuba in June 1960.
Left: Panama This Month, May 1960.
Later in life Scott worked as a correspondent for NBC-TV in New York, continuing his dedication to the news business.
In the November 17, 1947 issue of Scott’s well-known column “Interesting If True”, he sung the praises of a late colleague’s, Winston Jay Lung, typing prowess, and honored him through an anecdote about three Panama American newspaper heavyweights participating in a horserace.
Lung also brought the Panama American international acclaim when Time Magazine ran a small piece about a creative headline Lung printed when he was acting editor while Scott was on vacation.
Right: Time Magazine, March 2, 1936.
On May 31, 1948, the Panama American offices were attacked by government mobsters, leaving the building covered in bullet holes, destroying equipment, and setting a fire in the building. In reaction to this, Ted Scott, who had returned to Panama, reportedly armed the staff and installed barbed wire on the Panama American building. He also installed a cord near his desk that, if pulled, would drop a grenade to the landing beneath. The Panamanian government apparently heard about these measures, and Scott fled to Havana, Cuba to escape arrest.
The Panama American also clashed (less dramatically) with Canal officials: In 1954, a major landslide occurred at Contractors Hill, part of the Panama Canal, which would dramatically disrupt international shipping. Panama American reporter and photographer Hindi Diamond sought to photograph the landslide, but the officials refused to let her. To make a statement, the paper ran a blank 3-column space on the front page of the newspaper, noting that that space was where a photograph of the historic landslide would be if Diamond had been permitted to photograph it, drawing attention to the officials’ censorship.
A half hour after the paper was released, the Canal Press Officer arrived at the Panama American office and dropped off a photograph of the landslide to Dr. Arias.
Hindi Diamond, the intrepid photographer who had been denied access to the landslide was well know for getting the shot no on else could.
A glimpse into life as a woman working at the Panama American is well-documented in Hindi Diamond’s memoir, GrinGa: My Love Affair with Panama. Warner, N. H.: Writers Publishing Cooperative, 2005.
Diamond moved from New York to Panama as a teenager in 1941. After working as a civilian reporter at the Caribbean Breeze, a military publication printed in the Canal Zone, she joined the Panama American staff in the late 1940s as a reporter and photographer.
Diamond was confident being the only woman in the room and often outshined her male counterparts. Take this situation involving Juan Perón, previous President of Argentina:
In the 1950s, Perón was staying in Panama’s Hotel Washington to write his memoir. The Panama American sent Diamond to get the story, having to compete with the throngs of Washington journalists arriving in Panama to get the story as well. Diamond figured out which room Perón was staying in at the hotel and knocked on the door, telling his assistant that she was sent by Dr. Harmodio Arias to get the story, and if she didn’t get it, she would be fired from the paper.
She also said that she had heard that Perón needed a typewriter, and that the Panama American would be happy to supply one. She bought a typewriter from a local shop in a little over an hour and was rewarded with a picture of Perón writing his memoir. Hindi Diamond was the only one – including all the newsmen who had arrived in Panama from Washington – to get the shot. The Panama American decided to send the photo to LIFE Magazine, which ran it exclusively.
The original concept of an independent daily newspaper was challenged as ownership of the Panama American and El Panamá América changed numerous times throughout the decades. The final print issue of the English edition of the Panama American was published on January 14, 1977. El Panamá América ceased publication in 1977 as well, but resumed in January 1990, exclusively in Spanish. El Panamá América is still published today, over 100 years after Rounsevell set out on his mission.
More Than Just A Newspaper
The Panama American left an indelible mark on the Canal Zone and Panama, providing a daily morning ritual, a way to stay abreast of local, U.S., and world news, and in some cases, a first job.
Members of the community recall the Panama American:
Andra “Andy” English talking about her mother Margaret Nash, 2024
“As a college graduate, my mother was hired as the Panama American Society Columnist for the Atlantic Side for about six years from the later 40’s thru 1953. Her column helped keep people informed about what was going on in the lives of Atlantic Side Zonians to include things like engagements, weddings, birthdays, and other social events. She would deliver her column in a special envelope pre- printed in red ink to the train conductor at Gatun for transport to the Pacific Side and the newspaper.
The high point of her columnist career was reporting on Queen Elizabeth’s arrival and welcoming parade in Cristobal in November 1953, and attending the reception for the Queen at the Governor’s residence in the Canal Zone. I remember her excitement and practicing her curtsey.
My father and I were proud of the small but unique contribution she made to the Atlantic Side community.”
The Panama American · El Panamá América
An Independent Daily Newspaper
Read the Panama American and El Panamá América in our digital collection.
Porcelain figure of a boy reading the Panama American newspaper circa 1956. Panama Canal Museum Collection. 2012.099.018
This project, which is part of the Explorations series, was funded by the Janice G. Grimison and Edward “Ted” W. Scott Library Memorial Fund. The fund also supported the digitization of decades of the Panama American newspaper, part of the Panama Canal Museum Collection.
