A Well-Used Collection
This semester, three courses at the University of Florida are utilizing the Panama Canal Museum Collection in their curricula, exposing both graduate and undergraduate students to various portions of Canal Zone history.
Professor Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler is teaching an exhibits course in the Museum Studies department in which graduate students work in small groups to produce museum exhibits. One of the groups has been assigned to curate an upcoming exhibit for the Albert H. Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery. Their exhibit focuses on World War II in the Canal Zone, displaying artifacts such as wartime propaganda and personal photographs.
Professor Benjamin E. Wise is teaching a course focusing on David McCullough’s The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 (Simon & Schuster, 1978). Professor Lillian Guerra is teaching a course examining U.S.-Panama relations in the 20th Century and is using John Lindsay-Poland’s Emperors in the Jungle: The Hidden History of the US in Panama (Duke University Press, 2003). Both professors have brought their classes to visit the PCMC, and the students will write essays based on their analysis of primary source materials found in the PCMC that relate to the books. Both of these courses were developed with support from the Friends of the PCMC and are offered through the UF Honors Program for undergraduate students. We are also encouraging the faculty to incorporate discussions with local Zonians, such as Prof. Frank Townsend, so that the students can interact with and learn from people with firsthand experience and knowledge.
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5 Comments
Bill Angrick
This is wonderful. These students will be experiencing the value of learning and creating from original source mater. Or developing critical thinking skills analyzing respected historical writing. There is no better way to have an education.
Mimi Stratford Collins
“Emperors in the Jungle is an exposé of key episodes in the military involvement of the United States in Panama. Investigative journalism at its best, this book reveals how U.S. ideas about taming tropical jungles and people, combined with commercial and military objectives, shaped more than a century of intervention and environmental engineering in a small, strategically located nation.” Really???
John E Schmidt Jr
I am quite happy to see students there are looking in our PC Collection for their course work. I know there has to be a major amount of great background on the Canal and the United States involvement in its existence.
While I was a student at the USAF Senior Non Commissioned Officer Academy at Gunter Air Force Station in 1974, we were given an assignment in writing a “paper” for possible publication and accessioning into the USAF Air University Library at Maxwell AFB, AL. I wrote my on the then current negotiations on the Treaty and the feelings of those involved, I am proud to say that my Paper on the Panama Canal was accepted for inclusion in the reference section of the USAFAU. I will be sure to submit a copy of this paper to the PCS Museum at UofFl so the feeling of that time period can be available for research.
Diane Sparks French
Would love to answer students questions being a Zonian for thirty-four years. The only problem is I don’t live in Florida so can’t be at the College. If there is another way I can help the students I would be happy to do that. I just wrote a memoir of my life in Panama, but hasn’t published it yet. I’m a writer and have short stories about the Canal Zone.
Frank Townsend
Had a great time visiting Ben Wise’s class studying “Path between the Seas”. I shared a power-point about engineering construction. Prof Wise was very gracious allowing me to answer questions and share with the students.