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Thursday, March 28, 2024
NEWS  |  CAMPUS

Smathers exhibit offers insight into construction of Panama Canal

Frank Townsend doesn’t consider Panama home anymore, but he does miss the music and the coffee.

Now an emeritus professor in the UF Department of Civil and Coastal Engineering, Townsend is a third generation “zonian,” meaning he grew up in the Panama Canal Zone. Both of Townsend’s grandfathers worked on the canal, and that family history combined with his love for engineering led to a desire to commemorate the modern marvel.

Thus the Panama Canal Centennial Trail exhibit was born, marked by seven signs stretching from Smathers Library to the Reitz Union. It is a one-hundredth scale representation of the canal funded mostly by local engineering companies.

“The construction and the design of the canal are really important to me,” Townsend said. “And so when (Smathers) came about to try to do a centennial exhibit, I was looking for a project and an exhibit that would highlight the canal.”

Each sign helps explain its engineering and construction history.

“If you think back to 1904, back when they started it, the fact that they made something this big without what we consider modern technology — that’s pretty amazing,” Townsend said. “It was the space shot of that particular time. It’s listed as one of the seven engineering marvels of the world.”

To create the exhibit, Townsend teamed up with Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler, Smathers exhibits coordinator.

About three years ago, the Panama Canal Museum in Seminole closed down, and the collection came to UF.

While the Library of Congress has most of the official documents pertaining to the canal such as employee records, the Smathers collection documents are more personal, Santamaría-Wheeler said.

“We have what we call the people history — the photographs and personal papers, the things that aren’t the official history,” she said. “But it’s an important history nonetheless because it tells us what people were going through.”

While Townsend is hoping the exhibit will highlight the engineering feats of the canal, Santamaría-Wheeler said she hopes it will bring awareness to the Panama Canal Museum Collection and other library resources.

Santamaría-Wheeler said there are a few final details to finish, including printing brochures and stickers to guide people along the trail. Indefinite plans are also underway for an opening ceremony.

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Stephanie McComber, a UF international studies junior, volunteers with the museum collection and said the trail exhibit is a good way for students who are unfamiliar with the canal to understand its scope.

“Since I myself am Panamanian,” McComber, 20, said, “I wanted to be involved in something that would give me an opportunity to learn more about my culture and history that I wouldn’t necessarily learn elsewise in my classes.”

[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 1/21/2015 under the headline “Smathers Panama Canal exhibit offers insight into its construction"]

 

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