Fifteenth International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

This research analyzes the discourse of over 40 interpretive sites between Albany and Buffalo along the historic Erie Canalway of New York. The Erie Canal was the United States’ first major infrastructure project. Like many infrastructure projects, it had both positive and negative effects on diverse peoples and environments. This reality continues today. However, diversity is not often represented in the heritage communication of the Erie Canal, nor are Erie Canal tourists a particularly diverse crowd. Using a large body of visual and textual data from over 40 museums and sites along New York state, this research explores how race as a construct implicitly shapes the historic communication of the Erie Canal. This research can help sites along the Canal, and other historic sites, to consider their choices of representation and how their choices continue to marginalize people of color. Recommendations include reframing the Erie Canal as a complex system of connections rather than a monolithic symbol of national pride.