Lot 254

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Description:

EARLY PANAMA CANAL MAP
Historically important manuscript A.D.S., 1p. onionskin, 13" x 20" [San Pablo?], 1852, mapping a portion of territory with the goal of finding a path for a new Inter-Ocean Ship Canal. Boldly signed "John C. Trautwine C.E./1852". Trautwine, a highly regarded canal engineer, was chief engineer of the Panama Railway until the company faced bankruptcy and he was forced to resign. Solving a canal route was Trautwine's next job. The document, written in blue, red, and black ink, is headed, "Route Across the Isthmus of San Pablo" and shows the engineer's survey rendering of the area. Most interesting is Trautwine's notes on how he completed the survey: "The double red lines show the line of levels run by J.C.T. from the level of canoe navigation on the creek of Santa Monica...". The area Trautwine mapped was New Granada, part of Columbia and Panama; a published print-version of this map, titled, "InterOceanic Ship Canal Via the Alrato and Truando Rivers", Plate VIII, can be found in Senate Documents No. 9, from the 36th Congress, 2nd Session. Moderately toned, with moderate foxing and soiling along a 3-inch right border portion. The same area has several 1/8" spots of paper missing. Still, remarkably preserved. Although Trautwine's survey covers areas well south of the location of the present Panama Canal, as no reasonable person could envision the work that would be undertaken fifty years later, it does show the importance merchant shippers and railwaymen placed on finding a way to avoid transiting treacherous Cape Horn.

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January 20, 2010 10:00 AM EST
Stamford, CT, US

Alexander Historical Auctions LLC

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