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The Art of PCMC: John Haines
Some of you may remember seeing this painting displayed at the Fort Amador Golf Course. The painting now resides here in Gainesville, but its painter, John Haines, has kindly provided its backstory for the blog:
“For many years, the U.S. Army in Panama operated and maintained a golf course at Ft. Amador on the Pacific side of the Isthmus. In the clubhouse, there was a bar and grill and on one of the walls there was a huge painting of the so-called “Colonels’ Row” of large, concrete officers’ quarters that ran parallel to the second fairway. (As an aside, in his novel, “The Tailor of Panama”, John LeCarre describes, somewhat inaccurately, in my view, the rather unique fairway on that second hole of the Ft. Amador Golf Course, but that is of no import here.)
Toward the end of the so-called treaty period, the Army terminated its operation of the golf course and the Panama Canal Commission took it over. It was during this latter era–about 1988, I think–that I commented to some fellow golfers enjoying a post-round libation in the clubhouse, that the large painting should, in my opinion, be replaced with something more appropriate to the time and place and that, if there was only a way to get the thing to my quarters in Balboa Heights, I would be happy to give it a shot. When I woke up the next morning, the painting was sitting in my carport!
Obviously it was time to put up or shut up. Over the next few weeks, I took photos of a number of the fellows who regularly played Fort Amador GC on the weekends. I then attempted to position them at various locations on the course’s visually spectacular 4th fairway and green. In the background, I put Ancon Hill with the flag of the Republic of Panama and the buildings along the shore of the San Felipe and El Chorillo areas of Panama City. The finished painting was hung in the same place in the clubhouse. While it certainly did not rival the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, everyone I talked to thought it was a significant improvement over its predecessor.”
Thanks, John! You can view more of his artwork at his website: http://www.coronadohaines.com/
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New Online Resources
Hello, PCMC members! We have two new online resources to share.
The first is a list of Spanish American War veterans buried at the Corozal American Cemetery in Panama. The list was compiled by the Friends of the PCMC. These were SAW veterans who subsequently came to Panama to live and work on the Canal. You can find the link here: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pcm/SAWVets_2019March6.pdf.
These veterans have also been added to our list of Zonians in the Military, available at https://cms.uflib.ufl.edu/pcmc/links/MilitaryZonians.
The second new resource is an annotated bibliography of books about the American period of the Panama Canal (1904-1999), compiled by Elizabeth Bemis. The bibliography is an ongoing effort, and we continue to find and add resources. You can view the bibliography here: http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/pcm/PCBibliography2019.pdf.
Corozal Cemetery
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From the Stacks: Overlooking Canal
I spy a couple who is not afraid of heights! Nearly 110 years ago, a man and woman viewed the construction of the Panama Canal from a “tree on Balboa Mountain.”
Did sightseeing structures like this one remain after the construction period ended? Do you know anything about this location?
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Updates and Introductions: Summer Bias
Hello, all! My name is Summer Bias and I am new to the PCMC team. I am a second-year Museum Studies graduate student concentrating on History here at UF.
This semester I am working on blog posts and processing collections. I am so excited to learn more about the history of the Panama Canal Zone and showcase interesting pieces of the past here on the blog!
