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The Art of the PCMC
In addition to documents, photographs, and artifacts, we have a collection of art here at the PCMC. Please enjoy these Canal Zone scenes by Al Sprague, Jerry Fields, and B. Sturtevant Gardner.
Al Sprague, selections from The Panama Canal: A Profile in Paintings series, 1974
Jerry Fields, “4th of July Ave.” print, 1978
B. Sturtevant Gardner, detail of “Roosevelt Avenue, Balboa C.Z.” painting
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Behind the Scenes: A Day at the PCMC
On any given weekday, work is being done at the PCMC to ensure the collection is well organized, well housed, and easily navigable. Here is a taste of a typical day at the PCMC:
Betsy is pictured going through archival documents, organizing them by theme and material. Documents, pamphlets, letters, and more are stored in the gray archival boxes temporarily lining the room.
Georgia and Marygrace pose with their favorite artifacts in an additional storage room. Their current project is to organize PCMC artifacts by theme and material and catalogue their locations in a spreadsheet for easy accessibility.
Finally, I (Summer) am currently cataloguing stamps we have in the collection into a spreadsheet to get total inventory numbers for each Canal Zone stamp.
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From the Stacks: Pilot “Autograph” Books
We have multiple personalized “autograph” books in the collection, originally owned by Canal Pilots. These books are full of the stamps of ships that passed through the Panama Canal, as well as the ship captains’ signatures. These autograph books belonged to Robert R. Will and Jack R. Ward.
Do you know anything about this type of book? Is this common practice in canals, or unique to the Panama Canal? Was the collecting of autographs in lieu of or in addition to receiving the traditional coffee cups from ship captains?
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A Well-Used Collection
This semester, three courses at the University of Florida are utilizing the Panama Canal Museum Collection in their curricula, exposing both graduate and undergraduate students to various portions of Canal Zone history.
Professor Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler is teaching an exhibits course in the Museum Studies department in which graduate students work in small groups to produce museum exhibits. One of the groups has been assigned to curate an upcoming exhibit for the Albert H. Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery. Their exhibit focuses on World War II in the Canal Zone, displaying artifacts such as wartime propaganda and personal photographs.
Professor Benjamin E. Wise is teaching a course focusing on David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (Simon & Schuster, 1978). Professor Lillian Guerra is teaching a course examining U.S.-Panama relations in the 20th Century and is using John Lindsay-Poland’s Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the US in Panama (Duke University Press, 2003). Both professors have brought their classes to visit the PCMC, and the students will write essays based on their analysis of primary source materials found in the PCMC that relate to the books. Both of these courses were developed with support from the Friends of the PCMC and are offered through the UF Honors Program for undergraduate students. We are also encouraging the faculty to incorporate discussions with local Zonians, such as Prof. Frank Townsend, so that the students can interact with and learn from people with firsthand experience and knowledge.
