The Historic D&R Canal: Linking our Industrial Past with our Recreational Present
Lecture given by Linda J. Barth
Thursday, March 10, 2011, 7:00 pm

Canal author and historian Linda J. Barth will bring the D&R Canal to life - introducing the people, the bridges, the locks, and the aqueducts that made the D&R one of America’s most successful canals. $10 Members | $15 Non-Members. Reservations Required. For reservations, please contact Michelle Sheridan at (609) 924-8144 ext. 106 or at msheridan@morven.org

This lecture is presented in conjunction with Morven’s new exhibit "Ribbon of Life: The Delaware & Raritan Canal," running March 2 – June 19, 2011.

Over 180 years ago, Commodore Robert Field Stockton, owner and resident of Morven, obtained a charter from the New Jersey State Legislature for the construction of the Delaware & Raritan Canal. This spring, Ribbon of Life: The Delaware &Raritan Canal, an exhibit on loan from the D&R Greenway Land Trust, will grace the elegant rooms once inhabited by the Commodore. Featuring a collection of over fifty images, this exhibit explores the canal as a vibrant site of leisure and industry throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Intertwined with postcard views along the canal of cities, towns, factories, and countryside, museum visitors can experience firsthand accounts of canal travel from the perspective of nineteenth century travelers. These reminiscences recall a time when the D&R Canal was not only a spot for pleasure and relaxation, but home to bustling factories and mills; a time when this Ribbon of Life was the busiest canal in the United States.