Convicts Carry The Seine (Fishing Net) into the Water at Coiba Island

ID: SIA2009-4287 or Wetmore Negative Number 6114

Creator: Wetmore, Alexander 1886-

Form/Genre: Photographic print

Date: February 2, 1956

Citation: Smithsonian Institution Archives, Alexander Wetmore Papers, Record Unit 7006, Box: 183, Album: Panama and Coiba, 1956

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Summary

A group of convicts followed by a guard carry a seine into the water off the coast of Coiba Island. A seine is a large fishing net that hangs vertically in the water by attaching weights along the bottom edge and floats along the top. The image was taken by Smithsonian Secretary and ornithologist Alexander Wetmore while on a scientific expedition to Panama to Coiba Island.

Category

Historic Images of the Smithsonian

Notes

  • Image contained in a photo album prepared by Alexander Wetmore of his trip to Panama to Coiba Island.
  • The geographic location of this image is approximated by the information provided in Wetmore's original description of the image. It is not an exact longitude and latitude.
  • From 1919 to 1991, Coiba Island was a penal colony. Fear of the prison and its inmates deterred visitors from the island. As such, about 80% of the natural areas on the island remain undisturbed. The island is also host to many endemic species. Both of these factors made the island ideal for Wetmore's scientific expedition. The officers and convicts pictured in Wetmore's images from the expedition were part of the penal colony. Some even worked as laborers for the expedition. Today, the island is no longer a penal colony. Instead, it is one of 38 islands composing Coiba National Park, a World Heritage Site.

Contained within

Smithsonian Institution Archives, Alexander Wetmore Papers, Record Unit 7006, Box: 183, Album: Panama and Coiba, 1956

Contact information

Institutional History Division, Smithsonian Archives, 600 Maryland Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20024-2520, SIHistory@si.edu

Date

February 2, 1956

Restrictions & Rights

No restrictions

Topic

  • Fishing nets
  • Scientific expeditions
  • Landscapes
  • Convict labor
  • Islands
  • Penal colonies

Place

  • Coiba Island
  • Veraguas
  • Panama
  • Coiba Island (Panama)
  • Montijo District

Form/Genre

  • Photographic print
  • Landscape
  • Group

ID Number

SIA2009-4287 or Wetmore Negative Number 6114

Physical description

Number of Images: 1; Color: Black and White; Size: 4.75w x 4.5h ; Type of Image: Group; Landscape; Medium: Photographic print

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