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Co-Curators Wanted

January 25, 2016 /

As you all know, the Panama Canal Museum Collection at the University of Florida captures many aspects of life and work in the Canal Zone, from construction and maintenance to leisure and culture.

One aspect that is very present in the collection is the importance of scouting activities in the zone.  To highlight this portion of the collection, we will be creating two temporary exhibits focused on scouting in the canal zone!

The first will be here in Smathers Library– just in time for the March 12 meeting!

The second will be at the Panama Canal Society Reunion in Orlando, this July.

Curating two exhibits can be a lot of work!  Especially when we have a collection that so so rich with materials.

To that end, we would like to enlist YOUR help as co-curators of these exhibits.

We have spent the past few weeks looking through the collection and analyzing our holdings to determine what shape the exhibits might take.  We have identified 10 areas/groups that we might highlight.

Girl Scouts & Brownies
Sea Scouts
Patches
Badges
Pins
Awards
Cayuco Races
Medals
Camp / Camping
Patriotism

But we really want to know what is important to YOU! 

Please join the conversation in the comments to tell us…

What themes do you think are most important?
What types of objects are you most interested in seeing?
What was the best part of being a scout in the canal zone?
Why was being a scout important to you?

The comments you make may even be used as exhibit labels!

Also, be on the lookout for more Co-Curator posts, as we move forward with these exhibits.  There will be more opportunities to contribute content, vote, and make curatorial decisions via the blog!

 

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22 Comments

  • Carol Meyer

    January 25, 2016 at 4:13 pm Reply

    The most important scouting event is probably the cayuco race and associated items such as timing, routes, participants (not all scouts), support boats and personnel, patches, and awards. Most importantly, the tradition continues today although I’m not sure how closely related to scouting it remains at present. There were also some camps set aside for scouts and possibly some badges specifically developed for CZ scouting but I don’t personally know much about that.

  • Lydia C.

    January 25, 2016 at 7:19 pm Reply

    If I can contribute, by email, I would be happy to. Possibly identify items, read or review stuff, etc. I was in the scouting program for10 years. Cubs, thru sea scouts. Went to Volcan Camp 3 times, claimed El Baru twice.

    • ufpcmcollection

      January 26, 2016 at 3:12 pm Reply

      Hi Lydia,
      We may take you up on that a bit later! For now, keep following the blog to help identify and select images. And be sure to add any comments or stories you have about the 10 years you spent as a scout!

  • Robert Dillon

    January 25, 2016 at 10:25 pm Reply

    I don’t have much to contribute, but I am interested in Camp Chagres which was located on the shore of Madden Lake. I have tried to find it using google earth, but I don’t remember where it was. My understanding is that it is a remnant of the “town” that was constructed to facilitate the construction of Madden Dam.

    I remember that every year, there was a week long (including the weekends) campout during the summer. It must have been a mini-vacation for moms & dads. I remember going on a weekend (I don’t remember doing a whole week) campout at Chagres, but only vaguely. I remember going on one of the week long campouts (on the grounds of the Gamboa Golf Course probably after the treaty) being so shy I wouldn’t use the communal showers. When I got home there were things growing on me and I smelled worse that a wet dog (lol).

    Ahhhh, life in the tropics.

    Also, I remember going on a campout half-way down Pipeline Road on Rio Agua Salud at the hydrology station (the weir for measuring flow) that PCC had put on the river (something to do with Mr. Robinson. He was there.). We hiked down the river and I remember the biggest, scariest bugs I’ve ever seen climbing on me. I survived.

    I remember camping out on “Scout Island” (aka Culebra), just the other side of Naos Island on the causeway. First campout for me. It rained and I had the front of my tent facing a nice hill. Wasn’t long before I had a river flowing in. Good times!

    I remember hiking half of the Las Cruces Trail, from Gamboa to the Trans Isthmian highway where the old Spanish cannon was. I took a pass on the 2nd half. It was pure torture for me AND for Ulysses Grant.

    I remember hiking up to the top a Cerro Cabra, just west of Howard AFB. At the very top (or close to it) there was a huge bolder that looked like a giant golf ball, divots and all. It was covered with daddy longlegs. Our navigators (you know who you are) led us down the back of the Hill. Our parents were waiting at Veracruz, debating if it where time to call “search and rescue”, when we finally came marching in, in the dark. Boy were we glad to get back. Its a long way around the bottom of that hill. I’ll always remember, “Its just over the next hill.” We heard that a lot that day, lol. Picked up some ticks on the way too.

    We took a lot of hikes, and there were a lot of campouts. Campouts in Gatun Lake on Mr. Leon Guerrero’s Island, down at a campground on Chiva Chiva trail (where we would find leftover shells from U.S. Military exercises in the Jungle, and a mysterious trailer with satellite dishes and antennas all over the place, hmmmmm), and also campouts up some extraneous river from Madden Lake via canoe (I remember a natural bridge). There were “Snake Talks” at the Jungle Operations Training Center and campouts at the Toro Point lighthouse (at the Atlantic Breakwall) on Fort Sherman.

    We spent a lot of time doing cub scout and boy scout stuff.

    I remember the Scouting Store on the second floor of the Diablo Clubhouse. That is where they sold the Estes Rockets, the Boy Scout Uniforms, pocket knives, patches, eating utensils (camping type stuff), hammocks, cots, handbooks, and anything we needed to get out of mom & dad’s life for a good solid weekend.

    I remember Mr. Worsley was big in the Scouts. Seems to me that he was the oldest living Roosevelt Medal holder. He kinda died along with the Canal Zone. Now I’m sad.

    Anyway, I digress. I’m interested in Camp Chagres and what you have on that. Maybe a nice dot on a map.

  • Robert Dillon

    January 25, 2016 at 10:40 pm Reply

    Almost forgot. My brother and I went to the National Boy Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill Virginia in 1981 with a handful of other scouts from the Zone. Each patrol had it’s on Standard/Emblem/Flag for something like that, and my brother designed the Standard from our little group from the Zone (obviously this was post treaty). We were attached to a troop from Miami. My brother’s entry created some controversy because technically, we were now from Panama (not the U.S.) and he won the competition. They didn’t want to award him the win, but they eventually relented and he was the national winner. Imagine that. Mom and dad might have some pictures and such.

  • Robert Dillon

    January 25, 2016 at 11:39 pm Reply

    Oh, and then there’s the Boy Scout jamboree at Balboa Stadium… I remember that was fun with all kinds of activities and things to do, like tower constructions, rope bridges, repelling, Archery, etcetera. The more I think about it, the Scouts were my vacation from my parents. They were very restrictive, and in Scouts, I had a lot more freedom than at home. Also, I got to be with my friends. It was like the ultimate sleepover for a kid. No parents (at least not your own), lots of freedom, and lots of cool places to explore and have fun with (the perception of) minimal supervision. Fat chance that happening today.

  • Arline Schmidt Winerman

    January 26, 2016 at 11:33 am Reply

    My uncle BOB WORSLEY – R.C. WORSLEY – ROBERT WORSLEY was very prominent in Scouting during the years l930’s – 50’s ( ?? not sure of the dates ). He went to the Canal Zone around 1918 and brought his Sister – my Mother there. I was born in 1935 and left the Canal Zone after H.S. in 1953. Bob Worsley was a very well – known person in those years and did a lot to promote Scouting. I am very proud of him.

  • Robert Dillon

    January 27, 2016 at 4:01 pm Reply

    From the Panama American, August 16, 1959, Page 10

    “Camp Chagres…is the Canal Zone’s official long term camp. It was dedicated recently by Lady Olave Baden-Powell, widow of Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scouts, on her trip to the Canal Zone.”

    http://ufdc.ufl.edu/AA00010883/03092/10x

    Camp Chagres was an immediate casualty of the Carter-Torrijos treaty, on October 1, 1979.

  • Karen Parker

    May 3, 2016 at 4:25 pm Reply

    My mother graduated from CHS in 1950. She was a Rainbow girl and participated in many activities during her high school years. My grandfather worked on the Canal. I am planning a trip to Panama in early 2017 and am looking at retracing their life in the Canal Zone. Sadly she passed away many years ago before I could ask her questions about her youth from 1946 to 1950 living in Panama.I am also seeking information about my grandfathers job.

    Is there anyone I can correspond with or see in Panama that could tell me about life during that time?

    Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

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