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Canal Zone Cemeteries
We were reminded of the important place that the cemeteries hold in the history of Panama and the Canal Zone by the annual clean-up of the Panamanian cemeteries, supported by CGM Cemetery Preservation Foundation (https://www.cgmcemeteryfoundation.org/) and traditionally held on November 2nd. The PCMC holds several photographs of Canal Zone cemeteries, taken throughout the twentieth century. Help us enhance the collection by describing your memories about the cemeteries or by filling in missing information about the photographs below.
Corozal Cemetery, American side, 1993. 
Corozal Cemetery, Panamanian side, 1993. 
Mt. Hope Cemetery, date unknown. 
“View looking North from top of Ancon Hill, showing Axis of Canal – September 29, 1912.” Photo by Ernest Hallen showing an old cemetery on the right, possibly the Ancon Cemetery from the French era, which was moved in order to build the Administration Building. 
Photo from the Corozal, Gatun, Mt. Hope Cemetery Preservation Foundation (CGM)’s annual cemetery clean-up day, 2020. The CGM is a non-profit organization dedicated to maintaining, restoring, and preserving the gravesites of people of Panamanian and West Indian descent in the former Canal Zone. You May Also Like
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Voting in the Canal Zone
Today is Election Day and a chance to look back at the history of voting in the Canal Zone. Printed in the November 1967 issue of the Panama Canal Review, the caption of this photograph reads:
“Campaigning was spirited at the Culebra Post Office in 1912 during mock elections. Because U.S.-citizen residents of the Canal Zone could not vote in national elections at that time, mock elections were held a few weeks before elections in the United States as ‘manifestations of political desire for expression,’ according to the ‘Canal Record.’ The tickets usually bore nominations for national and municipal offices and at least one village included on its ticket a nomination for the position of ‘town grouch.’”
What do you know about the history of voting in the Canal Zone? When were U.S. citizens in the Canal Zone able to vote in national elections and what was the process for doing so? If you voted in the Canal Zone, where did you vote and what do you remember about the experience?
