Twenty-Five

Happy 25th Anniversary to the Panama Canal Museum

Twenty-five years ago a group of individuals got together with the common goal of preserving the history of the American Era of the Panama Canal. Early on a committee was established to acquire the items needed for this “Repository of Memories”: artifacts, papers, photographs, scrapbooks, diaries, letters, yearbooks, programs, commissary memorabilia, reports, operations manuals, books, signs…you name it. Those treasures became the foundation of the Panama Canal Museum and were used to create permanent exhibits about the Spanish, French, and American Eras of the Canal, the Tivoli, and the Panama Railroad as well as 17 rotating and traveling exhibits. Under their stewardship the collection grew to over 13,000 objects.

Enjoy this slideshow highlighting PCM’s history. Press the arrows at the right and left to move through the images.

In addition to building and running the museum, they earned federal grants, had a gift shop, created educational curriculum, designed ornaments, made a board game, hosted potluck lunches (including a lunch with “Teddy Roosevelt” in 2008), ran a silent auction and created exhibits to display at the Panama Canal Society Reunion, and published three books: Opening the Gates to Canal Cuisine: Preserving the American Era in 2005, Write of Passage: Stories of the American Era of the Panama Canal in 2008, and Panama Canal Townsites in 2012. This list goes on – their work and dedication was impressive.

They even got a phone call from the popular game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” with a request to answer some questions about the Panama Canal for the program! Does anyone know if they ever asked a contestant the question?

The video below offers a small glimpse into their efforts.

Although the Museum’s collection officially became part of the University of Florida in 2012, the founders and friends of the original museum have continued to steward, support, and build the collection. They are an essential part of the success of the Panama Canal Museum Collection at UF.

Since the collection’s arrival at UF, it has grown to over 25,000 objects, more than 13,000 pages/items have been digitized, and our Friends have helped raise over $1.1 million to support it. In 2017, we opened the Albert H. Nahmad Panama Canal Gallery where the Panama Canal Museum’s legacy lives on through annual rotating exhibitions.

The Silent Auction that the Museum started hosting at the Panama Canal Society Reunion in 2003 has also continued and is now run by the Friends of the Panama Canal Museum Collection. The current auction committee includes some familiar faces from the Panama Canal Museum’s vendor tables, “The Walkerettes”.

Between now and the end of December, we are hoping to honor their hard work by adding $13,000 to the $12,000 that the auction raised at the reunion this year for a total of $25,000 – $25,000 for 25 amazing years!

If you would like help us reach the goal please donate here: https://pcmc.uflib.ufl.edu/oralhistory/. All funds will go to support the PCMC oral history program.

Another happy anniversary to the Panama Canal Museum and a huge thank you for everything you have done to collect and preserve this history!

Back in 2003 Leo Krziza made a similar challenge – he offered to donate $25,000 to the museum if other donations could be raised to match it. The response exceeded his expectations with gifts from others totaling $44,000. Leo presented his check, written in memory of his sister Esther, to Joe Wood at the Panama Canal Society Reunion.