Happy Mother's Day to all you Mothers.  Many Blessings to you all.

This week's photo is one that could have been a Mother's Day back in the canal construction days.  I count what appears to be five adult women in this photo and would have to say wow if all these children were theirs.  But...what else was there to do on the banks of canal being dug back in 1910?  Anyway, here are some Mothers with their hands very full.  Can you imagine being a Mother in the early days of the Canal Zone?  No modern conveniences, living out in the jungle, mud, bugs, heat and some disease still floating around.  I admire and salute those tough early Canal Zone pioneer Mothers...

Mother's Day may or may not have been celebrated in the Canal Zone in these early days. But...I would like to think it did. In 1910, West Virginia became the first state to recognize Mother's Day. A year later, nearly every state officially marked the day. In 1914, President Woodrow Wilson officially proclaimed Mother's Day as a national holiday to be held on the second Sunday of May.

Long live our Canal Zone history.

Photographer Gus Steigler (click here for more of Gus's photos)