Panama Canal Museum

As the American Era of the Panama Canal (1904-1999) was drawing to a close, three former residents of the Panama Canal Zone living in Florida decided that it was an appropriate time to plan for a musuem to preserve the history of this era.

In 2010 the museum entered into a partnership with the University of Florida. The museum closed in 2012 and transferred its collection to the Smathers Libraries in Gainesville.

In the beginning President Joseph J. Wood, Vice President Betty LeDoux-Morris and Executive Vice President Charles W. Hummer, Jr., published a museum planning document and initial marketing plan and, in March 1998, achieved incorporation of the Panama Canal Society Foundation, Inc., as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. By the end of that year other board members had joined these leaders to govern the Foundation, and volunteers in Panama had begun to collect for the museum objects, photographs, books, and archives relating to the American Era. Soon the organization began doing business as the Panama Canal Museum and had its name officially changed in 2002 to reflect better its function as a museum.

Because many Americans from the Canal Zone and Panama returning to the United States had settled in Florida and in particular in the Tampa Bay area, the museum’s board of directors decided to locate the museum in Seminole, also the location for the Panama Canal Society’s headquarters.

After 14 years of operation, the museum transferred its collection to the Smathers Libraries at the University of Florida, where it is being maintained and made accessible online for others around the world to enjoy.