Christian Moreau Historical Collection, XIXth Century
The historical collection was donated to the Panama Canal by the doctor and historian Christian Moreau in 2015. It consists of 210 documents of the nineteenth century, such as books, pamphlets, bulletins, newspapers and illustrations, mostly in the French language. It includes the news published on the details of the negotiations and activities related to the construction of the canal by the French, its financing, works, difficulties and the scandal of the Universal Company of the Interoceanic Canal of Panama, its liquidation, as well as, the biography of Ferdinand De Lesseps and some of his speeches, where he explains the progress of the work and demonstrates his constant refusal to accept a lock canal (one of the main causes of the failure of the project from the technical point of view).
In addition, they present other topics related to Panama and the Canal, such as: 1) Scenes from Indian life; 2) Projects of drilling of the Isthmus in the Darién, in San Blas, in Nicaragua and in Panama; 3) Descriptions of the places as possible routes for a canal in the Atrato, Darién; 4) French masonry in Panama; 5) History of Panama; 6) The Panama Railroad; 7) The Americans and the Panama Canal, among others.