Online contest attracts entries from four states Congratulations to the winners of the Erie Canal Museum’s Brick-a-Boat model canal boat contest! In this contest, partner museums across the state judged model boats of all kinds according to overall appeal, originality, difficulty, and creative use of materials. The contest was completely…
Digital exhibit features entries in Erie Canal Museum’s Brick-a-Boat model canal boat contest. Works go on the museum website August 28. By Vicki Krisak, Erie Canal Museum A steam-powered cargo boat, a tugboat that traveled the Great Lakes, a railroad barge, and a replica of the Independence, a packet boat…
Images of the hops industry in Central New York The Erie Canal Museum’s July 9 Quarantine Coffee Hour features Madison County Historian Matthew Urtz discussing the history of the hops industry in Central New York. The program will be streamed on Facebook Live beginning at 10 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. It’s free…
Erie Canal author and boatman Robert Graham just released a new book, 21st Century Kids Along the Erie Canal. The Erie Canal Museum is partnering with the author by making this book of photographs available for free on our website. Click here to access 21st Century Kids. The book features 102 photographs documenting the…
By Derrick Pratt, Erie Canal Museum Educator Earlier this year, we looked at the early months of 1820 in Syracuse and on the fledgling Erie Canal, which, with the arrival of the Montezuma on April 20, began to offer the small community a taste of the astounding opportunities presented by…
Educator Derrick Pratt’s biography of Oliver Wendell Petrie, a worker on early 20th century canals By Derrick Pratt, Erie Canal Museum Educator Oliver Wendell Petrie was born into a large family on November 18, 1899 in Oswego, New York. His mother was an avid reader and named her son after…
By John Montague, Buffalo Maritime Center Join the Erie Canal Museum on Facebook Live, 10 a.m. May 7, to learn more about this project. In anticipation of the bicentennial of the opening of the Erie Canal in 2025, the Buffalo Maritime Center has undertaken a project to construct a replica…
The factors that led to the construction of the Erie Canal in Upstate New York. By Ashley Maready, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Erie Canal Museum The idea of a canal to unite the East coast with the interior of the United States was not a new one. Before the…
By Ashley Maready, Curator of Collections and Exhibitions, Erie Canal Museum The idea of childhood and the role of children in the family unit were both in flux in the early 19th century, when New York canals were being built and operation was beginning. To be a kid in Canal…
By Derrick Pratt, Museum Educator On April 20, 1820, the first packet boat traveled to Syracuse on the Erie Canal. In this article, Derrick Pratt shares the story of this momentous event. The Village of Syracuse was incorporated on April 13, 1825, marking the official founding of what would…
Community representatives recently completed scoring submissions in the 34th Annual Gingerbread Gallery at the Erie Canal Museum, 318 Erie Boulevard East in downtown Syracuse. Works by amateur and professional bakers were judged on the basis of overall appeal, originality, difficulty, and creative use of materials. Top bakers in the Youth,…
The Erie Canal Museum recently welcomed Derrick Pratt, of Chittenango, New York, as its new Museum Educator. Derrick most recently worked at Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum, where he was director of programs. In this newly created position at the Erie Canal Museum, he will identify and implement opportunities to…
