Joseph Pennell's pictures of the Panama Canal / Reproductions of a series of lithographs made by him on the Isthmus of Panama, January—March 1912, together with impressions and notes by the artist

JOSEPH PENNELL'S PICTURES OF THE PANAMA CANAL
FOURTH EDITION
REPRODUCTIONS OF A SERIES OF LITHOGRAPHS MADE BY HIM ON THE ISTHMUS OF PANAMA, JANUARY—MARCH, 1912, TOGETHER WITH IMPRESSIONS AND NOTES BY THE ARTIST

PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 1913
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY JOSEPH PENNELL PUBLISHED, SEPTEMBER, 1912
PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A.
TO J. B. BISHOP SECRETARY OF THE ISTHMIAN CANAL COMMISSION WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR ME TO DRAW THESE LITHOGRAPHS AND WHO WAS ALSO GOOD ENOUGH TO ACCEDE TO MY REQUEST AND READ AND CORRECT THE PROOFS FOR ME

THE idea of going to Panama to make lithographs of the Canal was mine. I suggested it, and the Century Magazine and Illustrated London News offered to print some of the drawings I might make.
Though I suggested the scheme a couple of years ago, it was not until January, 1912, that I was able to go—and then I was afraid it was too late—afraid the work was finished and that there would be nothing to see, for photographs taken a year or eighteen months before, showed some of the locks built and their gates partly in place.
Still I started, and after nearly three weeks of voyaging found, one January morning, the Isthmus of Panama ahead of the steamer, a mountainous country, showing deep valleys filled with mist, like snow fields, as I have often seen them from Montepulciano looking over Lake Thrasymene, in Italy. Beyond were higher peaks, strange yet familiar, Japanese prints, and as we came into the harbor the near hills and distant mountains were silhouetted with Japanese trees and even the houses were Japanese, and when we at length landed, the town was full of character reminiscent of Spain, yet the local character came out in the Cathedral, the tower of which—a pyramid—was covered with a shimmering, glittering mosaic of pearl oyster shells. The people, not Americans, were primitive, and the children, mostly as in Spain, were not bothered with clothes.