Share The Erie Canal Museum, located in Downtown Syracuse, NY, engages the public in the story of the Erie Canal’s transformative impacts on peoples and places in the past, present, and future. We are stewards and interpreters of Erie Canal related materials and heritage. The Museum is housed in the 1850 National Register Weighlock Building, the last remaining structure of its kind. Visit us for exhibits with interactive displays and original artifacts, and engaging programs. The Erie Canal Museum is a must-see for adults and children of all ages.
Description
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.
Thursday, February 20 @ 12:00 PM – Illuminating the Lost Voices of Lorenzo
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
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
Date & Time
Jan 15 - Aug 28, 2025
Venue Details
Erie Canal Museum
318 Erie Boulevard EastSyracuse, New York 13202
