If I were to go round the world again, or to make an extended journey anywhere on its surface, I should always prefer to visit localities that would be new to me, rather than follow routes I had traveled before.
Erie Canal Bicentennial
Erie Canal Bicentennial
To commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal's completion, in the summer of 2025 the Seward House Museum submitted an entry in (R)Evolutions: Bicentennial Research Project, a call for papers sponsored by the Erie Canal Museum and the Pomeroy Foundation. This entry, "Certain Heavy Scales Fell Off my Eyes," considered William Seward's relationship to the Erie Canal, and how his reversal on the waterway informed much of his political thinking and identity. The paper was awarded first place by a committee of canal experts, and will appear in an edited anthology of other new scholarship in 2026. Staff from the SHM's Education Department are happy to give talks based on this new research. For more information about booking such a program, please visit this menu.
Image Credit: “Canal Scene,” undated, by artist William Bruce. From the Collections of the Seward House Museum.
