Pathways of Resistance: Erie Canal & Abolition Walking Tour

This October we will be running a limited number of Pathways of Resistance walking tours, examining African-American experiences on and along the banks of the Erie Canal, from the waterway’s beginnings to contemporary times. Space is limited, so please try to reserve a ......More

This October we will be running a limited number of Pathways of Resistance walking tours, examining African-American experiences on and along the banks of the Erie Canal, from the waterway’s beginnings to contemporary times. Space is limited, so please try to reserve a space in advance.The tour begins at the corner of Montgomery Street and Erie Boulevard East in downtown Syracuse, just outside the Museum garden. Free parking is available in the lot across from the Museum, under routes 81 and 690.Note: We are unable to offer refunds for event reservations or donations. Please be sure you can attend prior to contributing. All event reservations/ticket sales/donations are final, unless the Museum cancels the event. Walking tours happen rain or shine. If we have to cancel a tour due to inclement weather, you can either move your reservation to another date or request a refund.

Deeper Dive - Women in the World of Frederick Douglass

Wednesday, October 11th, 2023  at 6:00 PMIn Women in the World of Frederick Douglass, Leigh Fought illuminates the life of the famed abolitionist off the public stage. She begins with the women he knew during his life as a slave: his mother, from whom he was separated h......More

Wednesday, October 11th, 2023  at 6:00 PMIn Women in the World of Frederick Douglass, Leigh Fought illuminates the life of the famed abolitionist off the public stage. She begins with the women he knew during his life as a slave: his mother, from whom he was separated his grandmother, who raised him his slave mistresses, including the one who taught him how to read and his first wife, Anna Murray, a free woman who helped him escape to freedom and managed the household that allowed him to build his career. Fought examines Douglass’s varied relationships with white women-including Maria Weston Chapman, Julia Griffiths, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and Ottilie Assing–who were crucial to the success of his newspapers, were active in the antislavery and women’s movements, and promoted his work nationally and internationally. She also considers Douglass’s relationship with his daughter Rosetta, who symbolized her parents’ middle class prominence but was caught navigating between their public and private worlds. Late in life, Douglass remarried to a white woman, Helen Pitts, who preserved his papers, home, and legacy for history. By examining the circle of women around Frederick Douglass, this work brings these figures into sharper focus and reveals a fuller and more complex image of the self-proclaimed “woman’s rights man.” Leigh Fought is an associate professor of history at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY, and the author of Women in the World of Frederick Douglass (Oxford University Press, 2017), which won the 2018 Herbert Lehman Prize for Scholarship in New York History and the Society of Historians of the Early American Republic’s 2018 Mary Kelly Prize. She served as an associate editor on the first volume of Frederick Douglass’s correspondence at the Frederick Douglass Papers, published by Yale University Press in 2009. Her previous work includes Southern Womanhood and Slavery: A Biography of Louisa McCord (University of Missouri Press, 2003) and she is currently at work on Sally Hemings: Given Her Time to be published by Routledge Press in 2024. The Deeper Dives speaking series is made possible with funding from the Dorothy and Marshall M. Reisman Foundation.

Erie Canal Museum, 318 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, NY, 13202, United States

Canal Conversation - Mid-Atlantic Canals

The Ohio & Erie Canal was constructed between 1825-1832 to connect Lake Erie and the Erie Canal with the Ohio River and beyond, fulfilling the link between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal was over 300 miles long, with 146 locks, built with the technolo......More

The Ohio & Erie Canal was constructed between 1825-1832 to connect Lake Erie and the Erie Canal with the Ohio River and beyond, fulfilling the link between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The canal was over 300 miles long, with 146 locks, built with the technology that started with the Erie Canal. Building a canal system in Ohio pushed the state from being one of the poorest to the third wealthiest in less than a decade. For Ohio, the canal changed everything, from money to ideas to foodways to fashion to culture. Today the canal lives on in the Ohio & Erie Towpath Trail.Rebecca Jones Macko has been with the National Park Service for over 30 years, and brings backgrounds in biology, teaching and history together in her programing. She has worked most of her career at Cuyahoga Valley National Park and her passion for history is known throughout the valley.The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company gained virtual ownership of the Lehigh River from the Commonwealth of PA in 1818, and in 1820 began downstream shipping of anthracite coal by means of a series of low dams with hydrostatic gates in them.  This allowed “arks” (boxes of coal chained together and crewed by two to five men) to reach the mouth of the Lehigh at Easton and then proceed down the Delaware to Philadelphia.  This system was superseded by the two-way navigation of dams, slackwater pools in the river, and canals with lift locks that  was begun in 1827 and opened in 1829. The Navigation was 46 miles long from Mauch Chunk (present Jim Thorpe) to Easton.The intent was to connect to the Pennsylvania Canal System’s Delaware Division, which was begun the same year, but which did not become navigable until 1834. The Delaware Canal went from Easton to Bristol and had 24 lift locks at Bristol, the canal boats exited through a tide lock into the Delaware River and were towed in groups to the LCN’s coal docks at Port Richmond in Phildelphia.  In 1858, Lehigh Coal and Navigation gained full control of the Delaware Division.The Lehigh Navigation and the Delaware Division were the last two towpath canals to operate commercially in the US.  The Delaware officially closed in 1931 the Lehigh continued in partial operation until 1942.  Anthracite coal was the chief downstream cargo on the canals, but a wide variety of other goods and raw materials were also carried.The Lehigh and Delaware Canals will be presented by Martha Capwell Fox.This talk will be presented via Zoom. Attendance is FREE with a recommended $10 donation. Presented with support from:

Lunchtime Lecture- Underground Novelties: A Humorous History of the American Casket

Nothing screams Halloween like a creaking casket lid or a creepy coffin. Sadly, throughout history these hand crafted “underground novelties” have gotten a bad knock. Come (if you dare) and join Town of Sullivan Historian Mike Beardsley as we whistle through the cemeter......More

Nothing screams Halloween like a creaking casket lid or a creepy coffin. Sadly, throughout history these hand crafted “underground novelties” have gotten a bad knock. Come (if you dare) and join Town of Sullivan Historian Mike Beardsley as we whistle through the cemetery of long forgotten caskets and casket companies. Marsellus Casket (Syracuse), National Casket (Oneida), Utica Casket (Utica), Asbestos Casket (Lowville), Anti-Trust Casket (Canastota) and many more had their roots right here in Central New York State but are now consigned to history’s graveyard of long forgotten New York manufacturers. Learn the answers to the cryptic questions of what killed these once thriving New York institutions. Among other things we will discuss how the death of Abraham Lincoln dramatically changed the face of funeral service in America right down to influencing the style of caskets that we use to this day. We will dig into how the fear of grave robbers the terror of premature burial and the dread of decomposition all contributed to manufacturers concocting designs for caskets that range from the strange to the completely bizarre. Caskets with telescopes…caskets with built in bombs…caskets where the deceased sat upright to greet surprised mourners… caskets that looked just like your favorite couch at home…and, even caskets custom made to look just like your home. American casket designers’ creativity knew no bounds. Your host for this frightfully fun afternoon, Mike Beardsley, is a 30 year veteran of the legendary Marsellus Casket Company. He is a past Board Member of the Casket and Funeral Supply Association of America. He appeared on the History Channel’s TV series Modern Marvels, and he is the unofficial historian for the American Casket Industry. Missing this chilling presentation would be a grave mistake indeed!  

Erie Canal Museum, 318 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, NY, 13202, United States

The Eerie Canal: A Behind the Scenes Weighlock Building Spooktacular

Prepare to be captivated by the chilling and enchanting tales of the past on ‘The Eerie Canal: A Behind the Scenes Weighlock Building Spooktacular’ at the Erie Canal Museum. This spine-tingling journey takes you deep into the shadows of history as you explore the secret......More

Prepare to be captivated by the chilling and enchanting tales of the past on ‘The Eerie Canal: A Behind the Scenes Weighlock Building Spooktacular’ at the Erie Canal Museum. This spine-tingling journey takes you deep into the shadows of history as you explore the secrets of the Weighlock Building, an iconic piece of Erie Canal history. Our expert guides will send shivers down your spine with hair-raising stories from the Canal’s past that have unfolded within these very walls and outside of them. This tour promises an unforgettable adventure that blends history and mystery in a way that will leave you both informed and spooked. Don’t miss your chance to unlock the mysteries of the Erie Canal Museum’s haunted past – join us for a ‘spooktacular’ experience that will haunt your memories for years to come!

Pathways of Resistance: Erie Canal & Abolition Walking Tour

This October we will be running a limited number of Pathways of Resistance walking tours, examining African-American experiences on and along the banks of the Erie Canal, from the waterway’s beginnings to contemporary times. Space is limited, so please try to reserve a ......More

This October we will be running a limited number of Pathways of Resistance walking tours, examining African-American experiences on and along the banks of the Erie Canal, from the waterway’s beginnings to contemporary times. Space is limited, so please try to reserve a space in advance.The tour begins at the corner of Montgomery Street and Erie Boulevard East in downtown Syracuse, just outside the Museum garden. Free parking is available in the lot across from the Museum, under routes 81 and 690.Note: We are unable to offer refunds for event reservations or donations. Please be sure you can attend prior to contributing. All event reservations/ticket sales/donations are final, unless the Museum cancels the event. Walking tours happen rain or shine. If we have to cancel a tour due to inclement weather, you can either move your reservation to another date or request a refund.

New Lock Old Lock: An artist walk with Erie Canal artist-in-residence Matthew López-Jensen

Artists walks with López-Jensen are participatory actions that combine collective action, conversations, and art making with the act of walking. Participants will gather at Lock 2 (Erie Canal Lock 2, Waterford, NY, 12188), and spend a moment getting to know each other a......More

Artists walks with López-Jensen are participatory actions that combine collective action, conversations, and art making with the act of walking. Participants will gather at Lock 2 (Erie Canal Lock 2, Waterford, NY, 12188), and spend a moment getting to know each other and a bit about the history of the landscape. Artist Matthew López-Jensen will introduce his practice and discuss the various aspects of the walk. After visiting a few spots at Lock 2, the group will slowly walk along the Old Champlain Canal Trail to the Historic Champlain Canal Lock 4, a distance of about one mile. This event is free, though registration is preferred. Participants are encouraged to bring a camera! The walk will begin at Erie Canal Lock 2, Waterford, NY, 12188, and end at Old Champlain Canal Lock 4: LINK participants can return to their cars by whatever route they wish. Parking is available at Erie Canal Lock 2: LINK Additional Parking on South Street: LINK    

Lunchtime Lecture: How Syracuse Gave Birth to the Studio Ceramics Movement

Ceramics are enjoying an astonishing resurgence in popularity. Ceramics seem to have finally broken through in the fine art world, and community studios are having a hard time meeting the demand for classes. Garth Johnson, the Everson Museum of Art’s ceramics curator wi......More

Ceramics are enjoying an astonishing resurgence in popularity. Ceramics seem to have finally broken through in the fine art world, and community studios are having a hard time meeting the demand for classes. Garth Johnson, the Everson Museum of Art’s ceramics curator will detail the astounding people and events that made the rise of ceramics as an artistic discipline possible. Lunchtime Lectures are FREE with a recommended $10 donation. This Lunchtime Lectures will be hybrid, giving you the option to join us in person or virtual. If you are joining us virtually, you will receive an email from the Erie Canal Museum via no-reply@zoom.us the week of the talk providing you with a personal link to this secure event at least one hour prior to the event beginning. All registrants to the program will receive a recording of the talk following its completion.  

Erie Canal Museum, 318 Erie Blvd E, Syracuse, NY, 13202, United States