Outside the Box

This fall we are highlighting our past, present, and aspirational digitization efforts. Scanning two-dimensional documents and photographs can be pretty straight forward, but what about those atypical items or the incredible Panama Canal and Canal Zone artifacts that we have?

Audio Visual Recordings

One group of items that requires special treatment is audio visual (AV). These videos or audio recordings include official productions of Canal and Canal Zone documentation as well as home videos of everyday life, holidays, performances, events, and trips into many different regions of Panama. The ability to once again see and hear the sights and sounds of life in decades past adds a special layer. We receive items in all kinds of formats: 8mm and 16mm films, DVDs, VHS tapes, USB drives, and others. The older, film based items have to be digitized by a company that specializes in these materials and has the right equipment.

This video clip came from a home movie of an American family living at the Panama Canal, shot in between 1955 and 1965. It includes scenes of life and nature in rural Panama, the Chinese Gardens in the Canal Zone, the lottery, trips to Old Panama, and more. We had to edit the original 23 minutes down to a short 3:30 clip for the blog but you can view the full video in the Panama Canal Museum Collection digital collection.

Three objects in the AV queue that I am excited to see eventually made available online are: films of the Dillon and Rowley Families from the 1940s-1960s that include footage of holiday celebrations, nursery and Sunday school, and the Canal locks; home movies of William Hitchcock from 1930-1961 and a number of reels containing unknown audio recordings; and home movies of Edward Powell that include footage of life in Panama and the Canal Zone.

Do you have any movies from your time at the Panama Canal that you would like to share?

Panoramic and Large Format Photographs

Some of you might remember the 2023 blog post “Panoramic Panama” that detailed the return of some wonderful panoramic photographs from our conservation and digitization facility. A few of those photos were six feet long! It is not hard to understand how different the process of digitizing something of that size would be from a usual 4×6 family snapshot or 8×10 official photograph.

Because of the large and somewhat unwieldy size of many panoramic images they often come to us tightly rolled. They have to be flattened in a special process that slowly unrolls them without damaging the delicate surface.

The rolled photos on the right are safely stored together until they can be treated by our fabulous conservation team.

Watch the videos below to see the 24 hour process of flattening three PCMC photographs in about 1 minute!

Preservation Process Step 1: Humidity Chamber. Humidity is slowly introduced into the chamber which softens the curling of the paper.

Preservation Process Step 2: Flattening. Evenly distributed weight is used to flatten the paper.

Negatives and Slides

One great digital success is the availability of an album of negatives taken by A.G. Bedell during construction of the Canal. The negatives were scanned and you can view them as images in our digital collection. This allows people to see the pictures and it keeps the original negatives safe from repeated handling and use.

Bedell took selfies with his co-workers in their office, he took pictures of his adventures around the Canal Zone and Panama, and he appears to have had a good sense of humor. Click to view the full album, Panama Canal Negative Album by A.G. Bedell. Gift of Kenneth Roth. 2014.50.1.

We have 3 boxes of glass plate negatives, used in photography during the 1800s through around 1930. The fragile nature of the glass and the photo surface requires very special handling and scanning equipment.

On the right is a glass negative created by Frank E. Reed during the construction of the Panama Canal lock gates. 2012.1.1.

We have traditional 35mm slides too – approximately 10 more archival storage boxes like this one of slides waiting patiently to be scanned. There are incredible images hiding inside, but they don’t get much attention because of the time consuming process of looking through them one by one.

3D Scanning

Every once in a while we get to do something pretty fun with the UF Libraries’ Digital Services team. In 2022, they received an internal Strategic Opportunities Grant to purchase new equipment and test it out. Digital photographs would be used to create a 3D model through a process called photogrammetry. Below are three examples of objects from PCMC that were digitized using this method. Click on the images below to access the 360 view.

This baseball was signed by the 1955 Balboa High School Champs. Gift of Steward Brown. 2000.62.1.3.

Were you on the 1955 BHS baseball team? Do you have any stories to share from that season?

This Mindi Orange Drink Carton is one of the many food cartons that we have in the collection. Gift of Cleve Soper. 2001.119.1.3.

What memories can you share about Mindi Dairy?

This Carnival mask from Colon is one of two that came in as a gift from Elizabeth Brandenburg, II.2018.41.1. The other mask was too difficult to scan using this method because of the fine details – specifically the eyelashes!

We have so many amazing artifacts and items of outside the box sizes and shapes. We hope you enjoyed learning about some of our ongoing digitization efforts and dreams for the future. Stay tuned for more…

This post is part of a fall campaign to raise awareness about our two-year initiative to digitized more of the collection. The goal is to hire a new member of our team whose only job will be to digitize items related to the Panama Canal – that means more memories and research material online for everyone to enjoy! Click here to learn more about our digitization campaign.