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U.S. Pilots at Albrook Field in the Panama Canal Zone Checking in After Patrolling the Caribbean and Pacific, 1942, II.2020.1.1, Gift of Bradley Wilde
Enlisted Personnel Pose at Base Headquarters APO825, 1944
2006.028.014, Gift of John Gough
Soldiers Operating an Anti-Aircraft Gun at the Canal, n.d.
2016.61.20, Gift of William Friar
Navy Men Attending a Church Service, n.d.
2009.008.004, Gift of Ken and Mary Ellen Thomas
Soldier Wearing Mosquito Protection While on Guard Duty, n.d.
2016.61.23, Gift of William Friar
Cancelled Envelope Showing Wartime Suspension of Service to German Occupied Vienna, 1942, 2001.109.002, Gift of Bill Burns
Dimples, Censorship Poem, 1944
Section News, 2016.26.5, Gift of Ruth Galleher
Navy Men Off Duty, n.d.
2009.008.004, Gift of Ken and Mary Ellen Thomas
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Great Expectations
Pressure to be prepared, in control, and respectable weighed heavy on soldiers. Wartime publications featured men at ease, depicting their masculinity and nonchalance in the face of ever-present danger. In the words of Elmer Davis, newscaster and Director of the Office of War Information, “this nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave.”
The Dichotomy of War
The average person in the armed services faced a variety of challenges. Draft letters, malaria and disease, injury, loss of loved ones, and death all loomed large. Surveillance was a daily presence as private letters were examined and censored. It was difficult to cope with these pressures while still maintaining a hyper-masculine ideal.
This online exhibition is based on the exhibition of the same name that was presented at the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries, March 7, 2020 - February 26, 2021.
Curated by Elizabeth A. Bouton with assistance from Elizabeth Bemis | Online design by Elizabeth A. Bouton
Student assistant curators: Summer Bias, Coral Dixon, Sean O’Dwyer, and Anna L. Weissman | Title design and other materials by Olivia Bowman
This exhibit was developed spring 2019 as part of the graduate Exhibitions Seminar in Museum Studies taught by Lourdes Santamaría-Wheeler. It was driven by student inquiry and has been an experiment in collaborative exhibition development processes.
Unless otherwise noted, all items are from the Panama Canal Museum Collection, Special & Area Studies Collections, George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida.