Staff Spotlight
-
Updates and Introductions: Lynea Wilson
Hello! My name is Lynea Wilson and this is my first semester working with the Panama Canal Museum Collection. I am currently helping to prepare the upcoming exhibition all about food in the Zone. This topic is closely related to my thesis research into
the use of food in museum education. I’ve spent the last week looking through Zonian cook books, yearbooks, and oral histories and am so interested to learn more about this subject- Johnny Mazetti in particular! I’m looking forward to learning more from this collection and all of you.
-
Updates and Introductions: Coral Dixon
Hello, everyone! My name is Coral Dixon and I’m so excited to join the PCMC team! I am a UF Museum Studies MA graduate student, concentrating in Communications and Public Engagement. I look forward to learning more about the history of the Panama Canal Zone, as well as get some hands-on experience with the collection.It makes me so glad to see that the Zonian community is active in this blog and eager to contribute and work with the PCMC libraries team towards preserving this culture and history. I can’t wait to start updating this blog with information, pictures, and stories as I come across interesting objects in the collection, and I hope to get to know all of you in this process.
Best,
Coral
-
Updates and Introductions
Hello all! I’m Liz Bouton and I would like to take this opportunity to introduce myself. I have been working with the Panama Canal Museum Collection since August 2016, and curated the Between Two Oceans exhibit with assistance from Jessica Marcetti and Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler in the Albert H. Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery, George A. Smathers Libraries.
I am a Museum Studies MA graduate student here at the University of Florida, concentrating in anthropology. I love historic collections, and the PCMC items offer a chance to explore a community history and present it to the UF students and faculty through relevant courses and exhibits.For those who do not know, Jessica, the previous Collections Coordinator of PCMC, had accepted a wonderful museum position in her home state this past November. We miss her here very much, but she has been thriving in her current position and keeps in touch. Due to the transition of personnel and exhibition planning, the blog has taken the back burner, but it is now time to get it up and running again. This blog is a vital source for collecting metadata on PCMC items, as well as a way to preserve community history through your stories. I look forward to learning from you and your experiences in the Canal Zone, so keep an eye out for a post on an upcoming mini exhibit and item of the day soon to come!
All my best,
Liz
-
Staff Spotlight: Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler
Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler
Exhibits Coordinator
Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler is the Exhibits Coordinator for the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries. This role includes planning, directing, and organizing an active exhibition program designed to share, interpret, and promote the Libraries’ collections.
Lourdes Santamaria-Wheeler So what does an Exhibits Coordinator do?
I schedule, organize, and plan the majority of the Libraries’ exhibitions. I work with collection managers and curators throughout the Smathers Libraries to develop exhibition themes, select items, and provide scholarly interpretation of materials. This means that 1-3 years before an exhibition ever opens, I am planning the space, designing publicity materials, helping to edit content, and researching copyright for any items to be included. When it is finally time for
installation, I install the items with the help of the curator and suggests any last minute edits. See the typical timeline for an exhibition.
Where can we see these exhibitions?
There are currently six Library buildings which host exhibitions, but the varied collections sometimes are also on view throughout campus and the country. I coordinate these outside loans as well.
I also oversee the Libraries’ online exhibitions. Similar to the physical exhibitions, I work with the curator to develop content. Working closely with the IT department, I also create most of the online exhibitions. The online exhibitions may be online only, an excerpt from the physical exhibition, a supplement to the physical exhibition or an online version of the complete physical exhibition.
How can I find out more about Library exhibitions?
Additionally, I maintain the Exhibits Website. Here you can find information regarding the exhibition programs, current, upcoming, and past exhibits, as well as exhibit news.
For even more exhibition updates, follow Smathers Exhibits on Twitter @uflibexhibits.
-
Staff Spotlight
Rebecca Fitzsimmons
Program Assistant
What do you do in an average day at work?
My job encompasses a lot of separate elements of the Panama Canal Museum Collection grant project, so on a given day I might correspond with a potential donor; inventory new gifts, looking out for interesting items to share with colleagues; take photographs or scan materials; update catalog records with images and additional metadata; and correspond with curators about upcoming exhibitions of PCMC material.
What has been your favorite part of working with the collection so far?
There is a wealth of wonderful photographic and archival material that is a pleasure to share with others, so my favorite part of this project has been working out ways to contribute to digitization as part of the overall records creation and editing workflow. The image capture work that is happening now is making the PCMC database records more usable and allowing us to help expand the digital library space on a daily basis, which is great for Panama Canal researchers everywhere.
What is your favorite object in the collection?
Errors on the Rolls of May 1915 Panama Canal Employees. http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00014744/00001
I love this unassuming document because it contains a quickly scribbled note at the bottom about the differences between gold and silver roll bookkeeping. Documents like this lend such an interesting and humanizing dimension to the more official construction records from the same time period.
Rebecca Fitzsimmons
Program AssistantBesides the PCM collection, what is your favorite museum (or library) and why?
My selection is a museum and library. I love the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, FL, in part because of the diversity of the collections. My favorite Baroque painting is located there, but they also have a circus museum that contains a wonderful collection of glass plate negatives (Glasier Collection) that documents all aspects of circus life–some of these images are absolutely arresting. They also have a fantastic library and archive, so it is really a complete package as far as cultural institutions are concerned.
Tell us one fun/unusual fact about you!
I fold several pieces of origami every night before bed. It’s incredibly relaxing.
