WCNY Hosts Virtual Panel on the Erie Canal in Partnership with NPF, NPS, and Partners

NPF Vice President for Education and Engagement Dr. Tracey Ritchie participated in the virtual panel discussion looking at the Erie Canal and how ideas on women’s rights, suffrage, and the quest for social justice spread because of it.

Panel participants included Janine Waller, 250th Commemorative Fellow, Cultural Resources Office of Interpretation and Educaiton; Andy Kitzmann, Assistant Director, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor; Jennifer Gabriel, Executive Director, National Women’s Hall of Fame; Michelle Schenandoah, Oneida Nation (Wolf Clan); Debbie Stack, Director of Special Projects, PBS WCNY; Paul Stewart and Mary Liz Stewart, Co-founders, Underground Railroad Education Center; and Judith Wellman, Ph.D., Principal Investigator, Historical NY Research Associates.

As part of the panel discussion, they showed the film “Floating Ideas: How the Erie Canal Helped Shape America.” Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor received a National Park Foundation Women in Parks grant to support to the creation of the film.