Dave Abrams and Gene Banning Pan Am Research Grant Presentation

Join our most recent Abrams Banning grant awardees, Dr. Kevin James and Dr. Jeongmin Kim, for an online showcase moderated by Special Collections Librarian Robin Potter Nolasco.

Funded by the Pan Am Historical Foundation, the generous Abrams Banning grant facilitates researchers' travel to access the Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records and related collections housed in Special Collections.

Each awardee will present on their research findings and discuss the many ways the grant has contributed to their scholarly pursuits.

A question and answer session with the online audience will follow the presentation.

'[A] Pretty Far Stretch of the Chewing Gum?'
Pan American’s Clipper Clubs, the Regulatory State, and Exclusive Spaces in Commercial Aviation, 1949–1974
PRESENTED BY
Kevin James, Ph.D.
Scottish Studies Foundation Chair and Professor of History, University of Guelph

Holidays on Duty
Pan Am’s Military Cooperation Program and Female Flight Attendants During the Vietnam War
PRESENTED BY
Jeongmin Kim, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History, University of Manitoba

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
Dr. Kevin James is a historian of tourism and travel at the University of Guelph. His teaching and research focuses on Ireland and Britain during the long 19th century, and also encompasses trans-national themes, such as the history of the modern hospitality sector. He also focuses on the experiences of Scotland and Ireland, and interactions and comparisons between them. Learn more »

Dr. Jeongmin Kim is a historian of modern Korea at the University of Manitoba, with broad interests in global Asia and the United States. She is currently completing a monograph, "Parasite Capitalism: The Transpacific Black Markets and Sexual Economies of the Korean War, 1950–1953," which explores expansion of U.S. military capitalism in early Cold War Asia through sexual black market economies that formed across the U.S., Japan, and Korea. Parts of this project have appeared in the Radical History Review (2019) and the American Historical Review (2022). Learn more »

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Robin Potter Nolaso is the Special Collections librarian for the University of Miami Libraries. She oversees public services for the Kislak Center at the University of Miami, providing teaching, outreach, and reference assistance related to the Libraries' extraordinary distinctive collections to students, faculty, and visiting researchers. Learn more »

About Dave Abrams and Gene Banning

Dave Abrams (1919–2005) joined Pan American Airways and worked for 42 years as a meteorologist, navigator, and Director of Flight Operations for Latin America after graduating from the University of Miami. Abrams was instrumental in the formation of the Pan Am Historical Foundation after the company shut its doors in 1991, and he played a crucial role in finding a home for Pan Am’s archives and memorabilia.

Gene Banning (1918–2006) was one of the longest serving pilots for Pan Am. His aviation days started with the infamous flying boats in 1941 and ended with Boeing 747s in 1978. An avid researcher, Banning was a guiding member of the Pan Am Historical Foundation from its inception, and he is the author of "Airlines of Pan American since 1927."

About the Pan Am Historical Foundation and Special Collections

The Pan Am Historical Foundation is a group dedicated to preserving the heritage of Pan American World Airways.

Special Collections at the University Libraries preserves and provides access to research materials focusing on the history and culture of Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America. The Pan American World Airways, Inc. Records consists of hundreds of boxes of materials and reigns as the most avidly consulted single resource in the department.