Wayne County Life

The Erie Canal in Macedon The Macedon Public Library will host an illustrated talk on The Erie Canal in Macedon on Sunday, May 3 at 2 p.m. in the library’s community room. Following the program attendees can have their personal photographs of the Erie Canal in Macedon scanned to become part of the Macedon Town Historian’s permanent collection. Refreshments will also be served. The Macedon Public Library is located at 30 Main Street, Macedon, NY. The program will be presented by Laurel Wemett a freelance writer and an adjunct instructor of art history at Finger Lakes Community College. Wemett has been helping to identify and accession Macedon canal imagery thanks to a grant from the Friends of the Macedon Public Library. Macedon Town Historian June Hamell will be on hand to assist with scanning of canal photographs. Today, the old Erie Canal conjures up an era when the waterway opened up New York State to settlement and commerce in the 19th century. Early on, writers traveled its length describing the journey and artists romanticized the landscape it traversed from Albany to Buffalo. Photographs later documented life on the canal, its mid-19th century improvement and expansion, and the subsequent construction of the Barge Canal at the beginning of the 20th century. Most recently the canal has become a popular recreational destination. Photographs, postcards, and maps in the collection of the Town of Macedon, some never before seen publicly, will explore locations of the Erie Canal. Attendees will learn where to find Macedon’s Erie Canal sites, from the remnants of Gallup #39 Bridge, recognized by an Erie Canalway Heritage Award of Excellence in 2013, to Lock 60 and Lock 30 State Canal Park, among others.

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