1910 Holland Panama Canal Pictorial Postcard (First Issue?)

This is a 1910 Charles A. de Lisle-Holland postcard map of the America's drawn to promote the construction of the Panama Canal. The postcard, entitled, 'the kiss of the oceans', incorporates two nereids, representing the Atlantic and Pacific, kissing at the Panama Canal. Statistics about the canal appear in the upper right, including its length, width, history, estimated concrete usage, and anticipated date of completion.

Panama Canal

The Panama Canal was the vision of the French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. Lesseps had been successful in the excavation of the Suez Canal and saw the construction of Panama Canal as a grander, more lucrative, next project. He incorporated the Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique on March 3, 1881. Unprepared for the jungle climate and corrupt political system, all progress was soon mired by disease, poor planning, political posturing, fraud, and bankruptcy. The Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interoceanique was dissolved by French bankruptcy court on February 4, of 1889. Five years later, in 1894, the company's assets were reorganized under new investors as Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama. This organization immediately began new plans to resume excavations, including producing detailed new maps of the project. Ultimately, the French lost control of the canal project to the United States. In 1903, the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty between Panama and the United States granted the United States canal-building rights and the sole right to operate and control the Canal Zone (q.v.). The Compagnie Nouvelle du Canal de Panama sold its holdings to the United States in 1904. It officially opened under U.S. Management ten years later in 1914. The 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition, held in San Francisco, was organized to celebrate both the completion of the Canal and the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 Great San Francisco Earthquake.

Publication History

This image proved wildly popular and went through numerous editions and permutations. Variations were issued at least until the 1940s. That being said, the present example is noteworthy for both its exceptional size, more than twice the size of other examples, and its large, embossed gilt border. It is also one of the examples few examples to credit de Lisle-Holland. The 1915 date in the title represents the anticipated date of completion. While the postcard is reasonably common on the market, this large-format variant, with the gilt border, is very scarce.