Panama Canal Resources: Welcome

The A.B. Nichols Panama Canal Collection was gathered and organized during the tenure of Aurin B. Nichols as Office Engineer at the Panama Canal.

Nichols was first employed by the Isthmian Canal Commission in 1899 to survey the Nicaraguan route. In 1904, he was assigned to the Panama Canal and served as Assistant Engineer at the Gatun site. He was later promoted to Resident Engineer at the Culebra Cut site. In 1906, he was appointed Office Engineer there and retired in 1914.

The bulk of the materials in these notebooks and albums were collected/created between 1906 and 1917; additional material was added by Nichols after his retirement, through 1923.

"Panama and the Canal is a joint project from the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries and the Panama Canal Museum. Panama and the Canal builds from the Panama Canal Museum's rich collection of Panama and Canal Zone materials and the extensive holdings on Panama and the whole of Latin America from the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries' Latin American Collection, Government Documents Collection, and the Map & Imagery Library." -- from the collection introduction.

The original guide was prepared by Robert B. Matchette et al in 1995. This version incorporates descriptive information about federal records acquired by the National Archives after the 1995 paper edition went to press, and it is regularly updated to reflect new acquisitions of federal records.

In 1995, the Engineering Societies Library (ESL) was transferred to Linda Hall Library. Among the works received were the A.B. Nichols notebooks (see below), pamphlet collections, journals, and other works related to the Panama Canal.

The A.B. Nichols Panama Canal Collection was gathered and organized during the tenure of Aurin B. Nichols as Office Engineer at the Panama Canal. The bulk of the materials in these notebooks and albums were collected/created by A.B. Nichols, from 1906 to 1917, with additional material added during his retirement years, as late as 1923.

An extensive gift of monographs related to Panama and the Panama Canal was received and incorporated into the collections in 2013 from the personal collection of Dr. Chaves-Carballo.