April 2014
VARIABLES
The Panama Canal at 100
The centennial of the Panama Canal’s opening in 1914 is being celebrated with a special exhibition and lecture series at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri.
The independent research library devoted to science, engineering, and technology will display more than 100 artifacts from the Panama Canal’s construction that haven’t been accessible to the public in nearly 80 years. The exhibition runs April 8–December 31.
The library houses an archive documenting America’s involvement in the construction of the Panama Canal from the perspective of A.B. Nichols, one of the first American engineers to arrive at the construction site in 1904. Nichols meticulously documented the Panama Canal’s construction until its completion in 1914. His collection includes 1,200 original photographs, 1,300 blueprints and schematic, 100 maps, 250 letters and memoranda, and dozens of hand-colored sketches and drawings, journals, postcards and news clippings.
In addition to the exhibition, the celebration of the canal will include a working model of a canal lock, created in partnership with graduate students at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Computing and Engineering; a series of free public lectures, including one by renowned historian David McCullough, author of The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870–1914; and an educational website that will launch in September.