Lasso, Marixa (2019) Erased: The Untold Story of the Panama Canal. Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), vii + 344 pp. $35 hbk.

2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 400-402
Author(s):  
Michael L. Conniff
Webbia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-166
Author(s):  
Rosalina Montes Espín ◽  
Ileana Fernández-Santana ◽  
Amanda Lucía Vitlloch Ramos ◽  
Leosveli Vasallo Rodríguez ◽  
Mario A. Lima Cruz ◽  
...  

Cienfuegos Botanical Garden is the oldest functioning botanical institution of Cuba. It was established originally as a joint endeavor between sugar magnate Edwin F. Atkins and Harvard University in 1901. Between 1925 and 1934, the research yacht Utowana performed ample plant germplasm collections for the USDA in the New and Old World as well as archeological and zoological surveys in the Neotropics. The botanical expeditions were conducted mostly, under the leadership of David Fairchild. In this contribution we review to what extent Utowana expeditions and collections were instrumental in building the living collections of Cienfuegos Botanical Garden. A total of 278 accessions (comprising 254 species) were introduced into this garden directly or indirectly through these expeditions. Currently 57 of these species (132 individuals) are still part of its living collections. Interestingly, five of the Caribbean expeditions of this research yacht carried plant material between the Cienfuegos Botanical Garden and two other botanic gardens that were operated by US entities, namely the Lancetilla Botanical Garden in Honduras (owned by the United Fruit Company) and the Summit Gardens in Panama City (managed by the Panama Canal governmental agency). Our study also shows that plant material collected during Utowana expeditions was sent from Old World and Caribbean Island botanic gardens to Cienfuegos Botanical Garden. Thomas Barbour, director of this botanical institution between 1927 and 1946 joined four of these plant hunting endeavors. He provided strong support for the growing of the Cienfuegos Botanical Garden living collections with plant material collected during Utowana expeditions. 


1949 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald S. Marshall

Peabody Museum, Harvard University, contains two collections of archaeological materials from Far Fan Beach, Panama Canal Zone. The first was given to Mr. Frederick Johnson in 1931 by an army engineer, without any stratigraphic or other data. The collection comprises some ten sherds picked up while excavating a gun position, and correlates exactly with the collection of some thousand specimens obtained by Dr. David B. Stout of Syracuse University during his work with the San Bias Indians in 1941. This second series was discovered in much the same fashion as the first, though fortunately Dr. Stout was able to get to the site while a few pieces remained in situ.Excavation of the site in the midst of war-hastened construction did not permit the detailed work desired by Dr. Stout, but the results are felt to be a step toward piecing together the background of Panamanian archaeology. Present trends of thought see the Isthmus of Panama as the scene of fluctuating migrations of peoples in the past, and an understanding of the archaeology will aid materially in establishing the course of American prehistory.


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