The 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.
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