The Canal Museum Collection (PCMC) in the Department of Special & Area Studies Collections (SASC) is the leading research collection for the study of the American era of the Panama Served Canal. The collection documents the U.S. experience in the Zone and in the country of Panama. To a lesser degree, the collection also preserves in the historical information about the Canal prior and subsequent to U.S. construction and operation. SASC preserves and provides Zone 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 Images: above Pleasin’ Squeezin’ from 1958 Officers Wives Club Photo Album. and the Canal project, the PCMC supports inside inset New Gold Commissary, Gatun, C.Z. and advances the commitment of the inside Interior of Balboa Commissary. George A. Smathers Libraries to excellence below Fashion Spoofing from 1958 Fort Amador in education and research and contributes Officers Wives Club Photo Album. to the University of Florida’s standing as a preeminent public research university.

Visit the Panama and the Canal Digital Collection at: MARCH 3, 2018 - FEBRUARY 1, 2019 http://ufdc.ufl.edu/pcm ALBERT H. NAHMAD PANAMA CANAL GALLERY SMATHERS LIBRARY CURATED BY ELIZABETH A. BOUTON “In our family, you have six generations that lived in a country overseas, and it was a different culture, in a way. There’s a slogan, the land divided, the world united, when they built the Canal. We had every culture because of all the people that came to build the Canal. Every culture in almost the entire world lived there and the stronger countries... their food and their ways were strong influences on our lives. We were introduced to so many wonderful people by living there, and you do feel different in that way. We’re not different than anybody in the U.S. because we all have stories to tell, whether you were from the Canal Zone or not.”

– Bonnie Davis Dolan

As a gateway to world trade, cultures and cuisines collide in the Panama Canal. For most of the 20th century, Zonians enjoyed the blending of Panamanian, Caribbean, and American staples at the dinner table. One would visit the commissary for imported American goods and Panamanian markets for spices and produce not found in the States. Panamanian and Canal Zone restaurants still surface in conversations, sparking memories of favorite dishes and places. The foods and flavors of the Canal Zone influenced palates for generations. #zoneserved