Culebra Cut from the Vista d'Oro

Joseph Pennell, born in Philadelphia, was best known for his prints of historic landmarks used in books and travel articles. He and his wife, writer Elizabeth Robins Pennell, published numerous books including The Life of James McNeill Whistler (1908), who was a close friend of the couple.

Shortly before the completion of the canal in 1914, Pennell created a portfolio in 1912 titled Building of the Panama Canal. In it, the artist noted how impressed he was with the colossal scale of the construction, but he was equally impressed by the commitment of the workers who, he observed, “worked as if to work was neither a hardship nor an imposition. I never met anyone who wanted to leave; and I believe that the threat to send the men home broke the only strike on the Canal.”