There are a variety of ways in which you can support the Panama Canal Museum Collection. Support from private donors like you is essential to continue to build the collections – both print and electronic – and provide outstanding services to students and faculty. When you make a gift to the libraries you support the entire University of Florida and help insure that students and faculty have materials needed for success. Your gift does make a difference!
The Panama Canal Museum Collection (PCMC) in the Department of Special & Area Studies Collections is a leading research collection for the study of the American era of the Panama Canal. The collection documents the U.S. experience in the Panama Canal Zone and in the country of Panama. To a lesser degree, the collection also preserves historical information about the Canal prior and subsequent to U.S. construction and operation.
The PCMC preserves and provides access to the historically significant and distinctive materials in the collection in order to facilitate knowledge creation and dissemination. As a part of the Panama and The Canal project, the PCMC supports and advances the commitment of the George A. Smathers Libraries to excellence in education and research and contributes to the University of Florida’s standing as a preeminent public research university.
When the Panama Canal Museum at Seminole, Florida, closed on July 31, 2012, after fourteen years, it transferred its collections to the University of Florida. The UF George A. Smathers Libraries, home to one of the largest and most respected Latin American and Caribbean repositories in the U.S., are uniquely qualified to offer continued access to the collections of the former Panama Canal Museum long into the future.
The Panama Canal Museum Collection (PCMC) is freely accessible to the public. The collection actually consists of multiple sections, based on format, which are managed by various librarians and archivists:
Selected resources from the PCMC are available digitally as part of the Panama and the Canal digital collection and the Digital Library of the Caribbean. For example, the digital collection includes Yearbooks and Periodicals which have been scanned, and Oral History Interviews and personal narratives.
Print resources such as books or maps are discoverable using the Libraries Catalog. Archival materials and artifacts in the PCMC are currently being arranged and described, and a new guide to the collection is forthcoming. In the meantime, contact John Nemmers for information about conducting research using these materials.
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