• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Historic Waterways Focus of Special Albany Lecture

January 14, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Erie Canal Lock in Albany in 1893The Albany Institute of History & Art is set to host “What is a Waterway Anyway?” with guest speaker Daniel Rinn, PhD candidate at the University of Rochester, on Sunday, January 19th, at 2 pm. This lecture is included with museum admission and part of the New York tour of the Water/Ways exhibition that is currently on view at the Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston, New York (January 11-February 23, 2020).

This lecture will encourage the public to reflect on the terms used to describe the environment. By looking at a handful of historic “waterways” in New York, Rinn will examine the division between what is “natural” and “unnatural”.

Rinn will suggest that a waterway is more than a means of transporting goods or people. Waterways can transport ideas and culture as well. The lecture proceeds to place waterways on a continuum – starting with “built” waterways and move to more “natural” examples.

The talk is framed around five moments or episodes in New York’s history: the construction of the Erie Canal, the Allegheny River and the Kinzua Dam, the Love Canal crisis, de facto segregation of city pools, as well as the proposed dam at Storm King Mountain along the Hudson River.

The Albany Institute of History & Art is located at 125 Washington Avenue in Albany. Free parking is available in the museum’s lot at the corner of Elk and Dove Streets.

The exhibition galleries and the Museum Shop are open Wednesday 10 am to 5 pm, Thursday 10 am to 8 pm, Friday 10 am to 5 pm, Saturday 10 am to 5 pm, and Sunday noon to 5 pm. The Research Library is open on Thursdays from 1 to 4:30 pm and by appointment.

More information is available on the Albany Institute’s website, or by calling (518) 463-4478.

Illustration: Erie Canal Lock, Albany, NY, 1893, gelatin silver photographic print on card, Albany Institute of History & Art Library.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Events, History, Mohawk Valley, Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany Institute of History & Art, Environmental History, Erie Canal, Hudson River, Transportation History

About Editorial Staff

Stories written under the Editorial Staff byline are drawn from press releases and other notices. Submit your news to New York Almanack here.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Help Finish Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • John Warren on Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York
  • Willem Bustraan (Amsterdam) on Restless Roamer: James Smithson’s Final Journey
  • Kim on Smugglers & The Law: Prohibition In Northern New York
  • Bob Meyer on Poetry: Stairway from Heaven
  • Carol Drew-Peeples on Manhattan Street Names Tied to Slavery Listed from A to Z
  • Edythe Ann Quinn on Poetry: Stairway from Heaven
  • Ellen Brown on How Does A Land Trust Protect A Watershed? One Parcel At A Time
  • Nell Rapport on Transforming The Niagara Falls Experience
  • Jimmy on World War II POW Camps in Upstate New York
  • Paul Huey on Advocates: Pass The Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act

Recent New York Books

battle of harlem hights
Ladies Day at the Capitol
voices of wayne county
CNY Snowstorm book front cover
The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era
Expanded Second Edition of Echoes in These Mountains
historic kingston book
Buffalo Sports cover re-re-sized.indd
With an Ax and a Rifle Vol I

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide