Exploring the Collection
We are excited to announce a brand new section of the PCMC Blog this month: Explorations. From time to time, we discover topics or objects in the collection that inspire us to explore them in greater depth. The digital projects under our Explorations banner will allow us to spotlight particular objects that otherwise might not be as visible, and they will demonstrate the incredible scope of the collection by highlighting a wide variety of subjects relating to the history of the Panama Canal, the Canal Zone, and Panama. We may dive deep on a single object, telling as much about it as we can, or we may explore broad themes and range far and wide to tell interesting stories. Most of our Explorations will be longer and more in-depth than the average blog post but shorter than the average exhibition.
Our inaugural Explorations project focuses on The Panama American newspaper. Of the Panama Canal Museum Collection’s vast catalog of online resources, the Panama American is by far the most-used with nearly 14 million views of newspaper issues over the past decade. It seemed obvious to us that we wanted to explore the history of this paper a bit more and share some of our resources about it. In addition to covering important milestones in the history of the “newspaper of record” for the Canal Zone, this project spotlights some of the important people who worked for the paper such as founder Nelson Rounsevelle, John K. Baxter, Sidney A. Young, Dr. Harmodio Arias, Ted Scott, and Hindi Diamond, among others. The project also incorporates excerpts from oral history interviews, including a special section on paper routes worked by Canal Zone children. We are thrilled that this project was funded by the Janice G. Grimison and Edward “Ted” W. Scott Library Memorial Fund, which also has supported digitization of the newspaper over the years.
Our second project, Panama Canal Playtime, explores a wide variety of toys, puzzles, board games, playing cards, and models in the collection that relate to the Panama Canal, Canal Zone, and Panama. The objects included in this project span more than a century, dating from the early 1900s to the early 2000s. We have grouped the objects into categories: mechanical tin toys, handheld dexterity games, plastic toys, board games, playing cards, and models. While most of these objects were intended for entertainment, some were created as educational tools or as collectibles. Regardless of their purpose, we think they demonstrate the enduring appeal of the Panama Canal over so many decades.
We will add new digital projects to the Explorations page in the future (we’re already working on our third project), so check back frequently and watch for blog posts announcing new Explorations.
One Comment
Peter Morland
As a Zonian born and raised there is so much about the Zone that I never knew. I had thought that the Star & Herald would have been called “The Newspaper of the Canal Zone”. My father would bring that newspaper home when he arrived from work in Old Cristobal. The Panama American was delivered to our house in the evenings.