Panama-Pacific Exposition Cancellation Question

This is a cancellation advertising the Panama-Pacific Exposition.



The cancellation date is almost 1.5 years prior to the exposition. Does anyone know when the USPS started advertising the exposition with postmarks?

To be honest there are a number of questions regarding this exposition and the opening of the Panama Canal that I would like to find answers for.

Was there any effort to complete the Panama Canal in time for the Exposition. Construction on the Panama Canal was expected to last till well past the expo. How did the Isthmian Canal Commission manage to speed up canal construction by years? If there was an effort to rush construction, would this have decreased the level of safety for those working on the construction?

Smauggie,
The earliest documented use was for the SF15-09-09 cancel May 17, 1911. These cancels were used until 1916. The example that you have appears to be a SF15-09-10 EDU March 14, 1913 LDU September 28, 1913.
Edit
Value for cancel $4 on cover, $2 on card

SF15-09-09


SF15-09-10

Edit
There were 30 variations of the Panama Pacific Expo cancel. The LDU for any of these cancels is January 5, 1916.

On the issue of safety, there were 2 attempts at building the canal. The French started construction in 1881 and abandoned it in 1889. The French effort accounted for about 21.900 fatalities. Number one cause was disease followed by landslides. The U.S. started their construction project in May 1904 and completed in 1914. Official numbers showed 5,609 fatalities. I could not find a breakdown on nationality but I would assume the the local workforce accounted for the majority of these numbers.
According to most sources, the project was completed ahead of schedule because of the ability to bring in better and heavier equipment, especially the steam shovel.

Thanks for all the great info, Russ.

The majority of laborers for the Panama Canal Construction were Caribbean islanders.

Well smauggie, just 29 more cancels and you will have the complete set! I have 17 different but the rest seem to be pretty elusive.

The first transit of the canal was in August 1914. The first guns in Europe were fired in August. (Read Barbara Tuchman--- The Guns of August) And by the end of August the First Battle of the Marne had begun in earnest. The celebrations planned for the opening of the canal were muted by the beginning of WWI in Europe. Obviously, the Europeans had other things on their minds.

The "guns of august" was quoted by JFKennedy during
the cuban missile crisis.
To illustrate in ww1 with escalation on both sides, war occurred for
no apparent reason, other than one upmanship.
It was JFK's reason to opt for detente in the looming Armageddon.

Well if there were 30 varieties, here is # 3, only 27 more to go

(waiting for number 4)

I was going through some recently acquired covers and postal cards and came across this cancellation.



Can anyone point me in the direction of a listing for the 30 Expo cancellation variations that Russ mentioned above?

San Jose is SF15-24


3rd class usage.

Edit: added image

This thread will probably help
https://goscf.com/t/13605&SearchTer...,expo,cancel

Thanks, Russ!

Not sure why that thread didn't appear in my search...probably used too many words in my search string.