One of the most expansive exhibits inside the New York State Museum commemorates the bicentennial of the construction of the Erie Canal.

“This was a great way of bringing economy to the state, making the state the Empire State, but also a way of really bringing ideas throughout the state,” said Kathryn Weller, the museum's director of education. “It really explores not only the construction of the canal and the economic impact but really how the Erie Canal helped change New York in the 20th century and well into the modern era.”

 


What You Need To Know


  • Since April, the New York State Museum has been offering three virtual field trips per week

  • This Wednesday's latest virtual field trip focuses on the museum's temporary Erie Canal Bicentennial exhibit

  • The museum's director of education says some of the field trips have been viewed by several thousand people on YouTube

 

With the museum remaining closed to visitors throughout the pandemic, its chief historian will bring history buffs on a virtual field trip through the exhibit Wednesday afternoon.

“Even though we can’t offer the actual visit to the visitor, we are trying to provide them a little bit of that behind the scenes peek at some insight they can get from our senior historians," Weller said.

Held three days a week on the museum’s Facebook page since April, the live virtual field trips have highlighted all different sections and exhibits within the sprawling museum.

Weller says they’ve been popular for both history buffs and school-aged children.

“Some of our programs we are seeing well over 1,000 viewers for these programs, some of them up to 3,000 or 4,000 people are watching them," Weller said. "That is really amazing to see that much impact from each of these field trips.”

With the field trips archived on both the museum’s website and YouTube, Weller says they’ve found a new way to allow more people than ever before to enjoy just about everything the museum has to offer.

“It is really gratifying and it has provided that direct connection with our visitor," Weller said. "It’s also created an opportunity for our scientists and our historians and our educators to really explore some of the things that they would like to talk to our visitors about so it’s been really wonderful.”