Speaker Series Membership

This membership allows you to enjoy 4 different presentations on the vessels Sam Patch or Riverie during the Erie Canal’s Bicentennial year!

Unlocking the Past: Navigating the Erie Canal’s First 200 Years Speaker Series takes an in-depth dive into the values, customs, ideas, and creativity that were sparked by the opening of the Erie Canal and the impact this waterway had on the individual and on the collective society of upstate NY and beyond. All speakers are experts in their field and local historians that are passionate about the Erie Canal.

Memberships need to be used within the 2025 season. All 4 cruises need to be booked within the Speaker Series and both boats are eligible. Capacity for each presentation are first come, first serve.

Once membership is purchased, you will receive an email confirmation with a membership ID code. This code can be used to book any of the special speaker cruises, up to 4. Only one ticket can be redeemed per cruise for each membership. If you have multiple memberships, each ticket must be booked individually.

How to book your membership cruises after purchasing your membership:
-Select a specific cruise
-Click on “Are you a Member” link and enter your membership ID code
-Click apply
-Select one ticket from the menu
-Scroll down and enter the email address associated with your membership
-Click Complete your Booking

-You can check on your membership benefits with the link included in your confirmation email.
-You can add more tickets for an

When entering the code and applying it, the booking system will tell you how many cruises you have left to book with your special code.

Please email [email protected] or call 585-662-5748 with any questions or concerns.

Date	Start time (90 minute cruise)	Presentation Topic	Presenter	Presentation Description
6/11/25	5:30 PM	Friends of Mt Hope Cemetery	Nancy Uffindell, Board Member for FOMH Cemetery	Many permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery have connections to the Erie Canal. Owners of basins and boatyards, aqueduct builders, boat captains and people who traveled on the canal will be the focus of these presentations.
6/25/25	5:30 PM	Pathway of Resistance: The Erie Canal and the Underground Railroad	Derrick Pratt, Director of Education at the Erie Canal Museum	This constantly evolving talk examines the experience of African-Americans along the Erie Canal Corridor, with a particular focus on the struggle for abolition. While parts of this story are unpleasant, slavery, racism, and resistance are critical to understanding our society today.
7/9/25	5:30 PM	Friends of Mt Hope Cemetery	Nancy Uffindell, Board Member for FOMH Cemetery	Many permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery have connections to the Erie Canal. Owners of basins and boatyards, aqueduct builders, boat captains and people who traveled on the canal will be the focus of these presentations.
7/16/25	5:30 PM	Fee Brothers & The Erie Canal: A History of Spirits	Jon Spacher, CEO & Owner of Fee Brothers	There’s a rich history of the intersection of spirits and the Erie Canal. 161-year old Fee Brothers was part of this history before prohibition. Learn from the 5th generation owner how these paths crossed and then went their separate ways as part of the canal’s 200 year anniversary!
7/23/25	5:30 PM	The Dulcimer on the Western Erie Canal	Nils Caspersson, retired teacher and local folk musician	The dulcimer has an obscure past and is a mid-19th c. hybrid of craftsmanship and utility and is also linked to Lutheran immigrants. I will present a wide variety of Erie Canal area community instrumental music and stories, including Irish, English, French, Swedish, Norwegian and others, with the dulcimer, highlighting the diverse rural communities along the Western New York Erie Canal.
8/13/25	5:30 PM	Friends of Mt Hope Cemetery	Nancy Uffindell, Board Member for FOMH Cemetery	Many permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery have connections to the Erie Canal. Owners of basins and boatyards, aqueduct builders, boat captains and people who traveled on the canal will be the focus of these presentations.
8/27/25	5:30 PM	Aileen O’Malley’s Journey on the Erie Canal	Marilyn Higgins, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Volunteer	A recently published historic fiction book by Marilyn Higgins, “Dreams of Freedom, an Irishwoman’s story of love, justice and a young nation coming apart” covers the abolition movement, native displacement, women’s movement, and religious fervor of the Canal corridor from 1830-1865.
9/10/25	5:30 PM	Friends of Mt Hope Cemetery	Nancy Uffindell, Board Member for FOMH Cemetery	Many permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery have connections to the Erie Canal. Owners of basins and boatyards, aqueduct builders, boat captains and people who traveled on the canal will be the focus of these presentations.
9/14/25	3:30 PM	Friends of Mt Hope Cemetery-Walking tour prior	Nancy Uffindell, Board Member for FOMH Cemetery	Many permanent residents of Mount Hope Cemetery have connections to the Erie Canal. Owners of basins and boatyards, aqueduct builders, boat captains and people who traveled on the canal will be the focus of these presentations.
9/24/25	5:30 PM	The Strategic and Military Implications of the Erie Canal	Michael Brown, Associate Professor of History at RIT	When in 1817 New York passed legislation to build the Erie Canal, anyone older than 54 would have been able to point to a map of its proposed route and recall that three wars had been fought in that area in their lifetime. It may have seemed possible, if not likely, that another conflict was only a matter of time. While the Erie Canal is most often remembered for its economic, social, and engineering dimensions, the military and strategic context of the canal is also crucial. As authorities in British Canada quickly recognized, a canal represents a redrawing of the map, and they undertook their own sweeping military engineering projects in response. Considering the military implications of the Erie Canal situates it in a larger history of strategic constructed waterways. The Suez and Panama canals and the Intracoastal Waterway are successors to the Erie Canal in affecting the geopolitical calculus of their eras.