2025 Sloan Lecture Series
We offer lectures each month on a variety of topics. Our theme for 2025 is (R)Evolutions. Throughout its history, the Erie Canal has been an agent of change and transformation, both gradual and abrupt. It was revolutionary in its own right while also being shaped by and influencing other transformative events. It has also been a continually evolving waterway, adapting throughout its history to meet the needs and demands of the communities it flowed through and connected. These changes reverberate up to the present with both positive and negative impacts that we continue to grapple with historically. As we commemorate the bicentennial of the Erie Canal’s completion in 2025, the Erie Canal Museum aims to examine these diverse transformative impacts on peoples and places in the past, present, and future in a variety of ways, which we look forward to sharing with you throughout the year.
Current Schedule of Lectures (more lectures and information will be added soon!)
Wednesday, January 15 @ 7:00 PM – How the Erie Canal Created Queer Life in Brooklyn
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Erie Canal transformed life across America in exciting and unforeseeable ways, and we are still living with the reverberations of those developments. Come hear historian Hugh Ryan (author of When Brooklyn Was Queer) discuss how 339 miles of canal turned Brooklyn from a collection of sleepy hamlets out on Long Island into an urban mecca for LGBTQ+ life.
Wednesday, February 12 @ 6:00 PM - 2024 & 2025 Erie Canal Artists-in-Residence Roundtable
Join the Erie Canal Museum and New York State Canal Corporation in hosting 2024 Erie Canal Artists-in-Residence Judit Germain-Heins, Alon Koppel, and Clara Riedlinger in presenting their work over the last year as well as our incoming 2025 Artists-in-Residence Sarah Cameron Sunde and Kari Varner, who will discuss their upcoming projects.
Thursday, February 20 @ 12:00 PM – Illuminating the Lost Voices of Lorenzo
New York State’s history of enslavement is often overshadowed and underrepresented in the histories presented to the public. However, New York State historic sites are in the process of bringing this conversation to the forefront of information presented to the public, and Lorenzo State Historic Site in Cazenovia is no exception to this development. Lorenzo is the 1807 home of John Lincklaen—the founder of Cazenovia—and boasts a collection of objects and documents that span from the mid-1700s to the mid-1900s. Interpretative staff at Lorenzo are currently working to dig deeper into the collections to find more detailed information on the people enslaved by the owners of Lorenzo and give voices to those that have yet to be fully heard in its history.
Friday, March 21 @ 12:00 PM – Along These Waters: Lost Voices of the Erie Canal
Thursday, April 3 @ 1:00 PM – Trolley Boats, Electric Mules, and Battery-Electric Ships
Saturday, May 3 @ 1:00 PM - “Go Ahead Anyway”: The Marvels of Engineering Hutzpah that Helped Surmount Enormous Geographic and Construction Obstacles
This talk explores the difficulty of the canal’s construction and the necessity of simultaneously creating massive aqueducts, locks, and other mechanical marvels across extreme elevation challenges. The engineering “team,” cobbled together on the fly, had to learn on-the-job, often producing trial-and-error solutions to complex, dangerous situations. Special focus will be given to the little-known story of self-taught Canvass White, whose curiosity, expertise, and versatility as an early, intrepid engineer saved the day. What did this uncelebrated hero accomplish in the face of material failure and structural disaster?
Thursday, May 22 @ 12:00 PM – Common Labor: Workers and the Digging of North American Canals
Saturday, June 2 @ 3:00 PM – Lafayette and the Erie Canal
Wednesday, July 30 @ 6:00 PM – Erieville Reservoir Dam and Tuscarora Lake: Then and Now
Thursday, August 28 @ 12:00 PM – Determined Not to Enter the Ditch Again: Labor Struggles of the Erie Canal
Thursday, September 18 @ 12:00 PM - From Factories to Condos: The Postindustrial Transformation of Montreal's Lachine Canal
Built in 1825, Montreal's Lachine Canal served as a vital transportation link and was the birthplace of Canada's industrial revolution. Closed in 1970, this talk will explore how the industrial canal and its post-industrial transformation is remembered today. Oral histories reveal a strong connection between the canal and the adjoining neighborhoods.
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