This November 1904 photograph, from a U.S. Navy musician's personal album, documents Secretary of War William Howard Taft's inspection voyage to the Isthmus of Panama aboard the protected cruiser USS Columbia. Taft, seated at right with his wife and the dog, led the Isthmian Canal Commission delegation, seen here on Columbia's awning-covered deck alongside Panama's Minister to the United States, Jose Domingo de Obaldia (seated, left), and commission officials including Rear Admiral John G. Walker. The voyage came just a year after Panama's separation from Colombia and the signing of the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, during the earliest phase of American oversight of the future Panama Canal Zone. Project: 218602