Panama declared its separation from Colombia on November 3, 1903. These six records look at the local institutions, international power and public imagery surrounding the new republic.
The photographs and printed objects have different dates. The gunboat was photographed in 1898; the declaration facsimile and city stereograph were published in 1904. None is presented as an unverified photograph of the declaration ceremony.
Topic: Politics & Power
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The municipal council in 1903
The municipal council of Panama appears in this group photograph cataloged to 1903. Under Demetrio H. Brid, the council supported separation from Colombia on November 3. The photograph identifies the institution involved; its exact exposure day is not established, so it should not be read as a picture of the declaration itself.
This facsimile of the act proclaiming separation appeared in El Heraldo del Istmo in July 1904. The document concerns 1903; the reproduction is from the following year. Its signatures and formal layout show how the new republic’s founding act was preserved and circulated after the immediate crisis.
Photo details
Date
July 20, 1904 publication; document concerns the 1903 separation
Location
Panama
Photographer
Panama Municipal Council (original document); facsimile maker unidentified
Archive / collection
El Heraldo del Istmo, no.13, 1904 / Wikimedia Commons
Panama Municipal Council / El Heraldo del Istmo, no. 13, July 20, 1904 / Wikimedia Commons
03 / 06
An organizer who became president
Manuel Amador Guerrero appears in a portrait published no later than 1904. He had sought American support for separation and became the republic’s first constitutional president in 1904. This is a portrait of a participant, not a photograph of the November 3 events. The original source credits the photographer as Scherer.
Scherer / The World’s Work, volume 7 / Wikimedia Commons
04 / 06
The gunboat before the crisis
USS Nashville was photographed at the Norfolk Navy Yard on January 8, 1898, almost six years before its arrival at Colón in November 1903. The ship’s presence became part of the military circumstances surrounding separation. The location and date matter: this photograph shows the vessel in Virginia, not off the Panamanian coast.
Photo details
Date
January 8, 1898
Location
Norfolk Navy Yard, Virginia, United States
Photographer
U.S. Navy photographer unidentified
Archive / collection
U.S. Navy historical photograph / Wikimedia Commons
U.S. Navy photographer unidentified / U.S. Navy historical photograph / Wikimedia Commons
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The new republic’s capital
Underwood & Underwood published this stereograph of Panama City and its Pacific harbor in 1904. The paired views were intended for a stereoscope. The publisher’s title calls it the capital of the new republic, placing an everyday urban landscape within the political change of the previous November.
Photo details
Date
1904
Location
Panama City and Pacific harbor
Photographer
Photographer unidentified; published by Underwood & Underwood
Archive / collection
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 2021640087
Photographer unidentified; published by Underwood & Underwood / Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 2021640087
06 / 06
Roosevelt through a cartoonist’s eyes
This American cartoon, cataloged to 1903 and attributed to an unidentified New York Times artist, presents Theodore Roosevelt in connection with the Panama Canal. It belongs to the argument over American power and the canal project. As political satire, it records an interpretation of events rather than a literal scene of the separation.
