2020 Spring Luncheon and Exhibition

The annual Spring luncheon and joint meeting of the Friends of the Panama Canal Museum Collection and the Panama Canal Society will be held Saturday, March 7, 2020, in the Smathers Library Building on the University of Florida campus. If you are interested in attending the luncheon, please refer to the registration form for PCS members.

Luncheon attendees will be able to view the new exhibition in the Albert Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery, entitled Are We Next? Fear and Social Roles in World War II. This exhibition examines the defense of the Panama Canal during the Second World War. As a result of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, there was heightened fear that the Canal would be the next target because of its strategic importance to the war effort. The military, government officials, and civilians worked together to ensure that the Canal would not be vulnerable to sabotage or bombing and that Canal operations would continue uninterrupted. This exhibition explores the personal experiences, social aspects, and politics of defending and operating the Canal during the war.

The exhibition will be on view in the Gallery until February 2021, open to visitors during weekdays and on Sundays when the Smathers Library Building is open on the UF campus. The exhibition, which coincides with the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in 1945, was developed with curatorial assistance from graduate students in the Museum Studies program at UF.