Journey to New York: The Immigrants’ Empire and the Erie Canal

Program Type:

Performance, Other

Age Group:

Adults
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Event Details

Take a journey with an immigrant family as they sail from Liverpool, England, to America’s New York, looking for work on the Erie Canal.

Participants at this presentation can gain an appreciation for the extraordinary gamble immigrants made when they set sail for America. Learn more about the circumstances that forced people to leave their native lands, along with the range of conditions they settled into. As viewers follow a fictional family from Ireland, they’ll learn the dangers that trans-Atlantic travel posed for passengers in steerage class. The use of photographic evidence and primary sources from the mid and late 1800’s will illuminate how immigrants earned money, where they might have lived, how they managed travel up and out of NYC and why the Erie Canal lured so many to pursue a chance for a better life Upstate.

Our presenter, Jeanne Gostling, is a retired public-school teacher and adjunct SUNY instructor. She joined the staff at Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site in May 2024, and uses her passion for the past and her wide-ranging knowledge of sociology to create presentations that personify local and regional history.