?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(NICARAGUA.) Photo album of a distinguished U.S. Army expedition to survey a potential new canal route. Approximately 360 photographs, most about 2 x 2 1/2 inches, laid down on 49 leaves of heavy notebook paper. 4to, 11 x 8 1/2 inches, bound with metal fastener strips, lacking original cloth boards; leaves a bit warped, otherwise minimal wear. Vp, August to October 1939
In August 1939, a group of 8 members of the United States Army Corps of Engineers and other officials were dispatched from New York to Nicaragua to examine the potential for a new barge canal across Nicaragua (see the Department of State Bulletin of 12 August 1939 for details). This well-captioned album seems to be the personal effort of an expedition member. The first 7 pages document a visit to the New York World's Fair, as well as sights in Haiti, Panama, and Costa Rica on the trip down. The remaining photographs are all from Nicaragua and Costa Rica, many with an emphasis on engineering aspects, but liberally salted with tourist and human interest shots, some of them whimsically captioned. The engineers and clerks sent on this expedition were not particularly well-known at the time, but some made their marks in the coming war. One of them, Captain Leslie Richard Groves of the Corps of Engineers, played a major role in history six years later as the head of the Manhattan Project. He is identified in at least 3 of these pictures. The expedition's medical officer, Lt. Col. Paul R. Hawley, served for three years as the Army's commanding surgeon for the entire European Theater from 1942 to 1945. The pilot, Lieutenant William B. Bunker, is now a member of the Army Aviation Hall of Fame. The expedition's commander, Col. Charles P. Gross, went on to command the Army Transportation Corps during the war and reached the rank of Major General.
