Visit Museums, Win an I-Pad 05/16/2012
Visit eight of twelve Cultural and Historical sites in Madison County over the summer and fall and you will have the chance to win an I-Pad. That’s the big prize in a promotion unveiled today at a press conference in Wampsville. Twelve cultural and historic sites across Madison County have banded together to create the Cultural and Historic Attraction Passport Program. The goal is to encourage visitation during the summer and fall of 2012. Each time a visitor stops at one of the locations they will receive a stamp in the passport. When they are finished, they will turn in their entry forms. In December all of the entries will be combined and a winner of the I-Pad will be chosen. Madison County Tourism executive director Jim Walter explained the importance of the program, “We have fantastic museums, music venues and cultural sites in the county. This passport program is an effort to introduce visitors to all of the sites in the county. If someone stops at the Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum, they will quickly learn about the Canastota Canal Town Museum just 5 miles down the road. The more exposure we can give to our historic sites and museums the more visitors we will bring to the county.” Visitors to cultural and historical sites on average, spend more money than the typical visitor. This program is designed to attract more of those tourists to Madison County, and to get them to stay longer by showcasing the variety and number of sites available to visit. The participating sites include: The Oneida Community Mansion House Canastota Canaltown Museum Chittenango Landing Canal Boat Museum Lorenzo State Historic Site National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum Catherine Cummings Theatre Cazenovia College Art Gallery in Reisman Hall Earlville Opera House Madison County Historical Society Stone Quarry Hill Art Park Gerrit Smith National Historic Landmark Cazenovia Public Library Visitors will be able to pick up the passports at any of the participating museums, tourism information kiosks inside the Colgate Bookstore in Hamilton, the Madison County Visitor Center on Route 20 in Bouckville, Oneida Commons in Oneida, the county office building in Wampsville, outside of Cazenovia Artisans in Cazenovia and at local chamber of commerce offices in Oneida and Cazenovia. The passport is also available online by clicking the file below this story. The passport was made possible in part by a donation from the Upstate Institute at Colgate University. 
Add Comment Stewards for the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark are preparing the historic site for the opening of the 2012 season and for the 20th Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend on June 9 and 10. The exhibits in The Lodge, The Barn, and the Land Office on the estate will open Saturday, May 19th for NYS Heritage Weekend, and remain open until September 23 on Saturdays and Sundays from 1 – 5, and by appointment.  During Civil War Weekend, scrapbooks and photo albums of previous Peterboro Civil War Weekends will be added to NYS Underground Railroad Trail information, Birdhouse exhibit, and video on Gerrit Smith that greet visitors to The Lodge / Visitor Center. The Peterboro Mercantile will have a new stock of tee shirts and Civil War items for sale along with other Peterboro heritage items.
The Barn’s permanent exhibits on the Smith Family, African-Americans in 19th C. Peterboro, the Underground Railroad, and abolition will be joined by ongoing displays, book-signings, and scheduled programs by authors on both days of the Peterboro weekend. At 11:00 am both days, Robert O. Richter, Greene NY, will speak on his research for his 365 page book on the 114th New York Infantry Regiment, which was composed of 1133 men from primarily Chenango and Madison counties and parts of Broome, Cortland, Delaware, Oneida, and Otsego counties. 299 men of the regiment lost their lives during the war. 834 returned to the area and some moved to 40 states and territories. Richter is bringing the remaining copies of this comprehensive text for genealogical and historical research. Two major Madison County arts and historical organizations are collaborating on a series of events to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The Earlville Opera House Multi-Arts Center and the Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend have developed two historical and musical programs to provide education and entertainment about the War Between the States. In conjunction with the 2012 NYS Heritage Weekend, to be celebrated at sites around the State on Saturday and Sunday, May 19 and 20, the first collaborative event will take place on Saturday, May 19, at 7:30 pm, at the historic Madison Hall in Morrisville. The event, John Brown's Ghost: From Madison County to Harpers Ferry, will be hosted by local author and playwright Hugh C. Humphreys who will highlight Madison County's profound role in igniting the war, including abolition activities and its support of John Brown. Matthew Urtz, Madison County Historian, will present the faces of Madison County participants in the war, as well as a selection of letters to and from Civil War soldiers. Greg Artzner and Terri Leonino, who comprise the musical duo Magpie, will perform selections of Civil War music. Artzner and Leonino have spent decades studying John and Mary Brown, and they perform regularly at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and at John Brown Lives! functions in Lake Placid. On Friday, June 8, at 7:30 pm, the Earlville Opera House presents Four Seasons, Four Years - The Civil War, A Musical Journey. Magpie returns with nine other upstate New York musicians in a new theater/folk music ensemble performing popular songs of the era (1820-1865) as well as songs composed in response to the war and the events leading up to it. The music will be interspersed with historical narratives specific to New York State and the New York Volunteer Regiments. The Earlville Opera House Multi-Arts Center leads the collaboration as Madison County's premier performing arts venue. Founded in 1970 as a nonprofit, volunteer-based, community service organization to promote the arts in rural Central New York, EOH offers programs of cultural, educational and historical significance to audiences from all over the northeast in a beautifully restored theater originally constructed in 1892. Tickets to the May 19 and June 9 events are available online at www.earlvilleoperahouse.com or by calling 315-691-3551, and at the door of Madison Hall on May 19. Madison Hall is located at 100 East Main Street / Route 20, Morrisville. As part of the ongoing sesquicentennial celebration of the Civil War, The Earlville Opera House and Smithfield Community Association have teemed up to offer two concerts this spring. The first one is Saturday May 19th and is called John Brown's Ghost. It will take place at historic Madison Hall in Morrisville. The second concert is part of the annual Civil War Weekend in Peterboro. It will take place on Friday June 8th, at the Earlville Opera House in Earlville. 
Peterboro Celebrates Women's History Month 03/01/2012
Elizabeth Cady spent her summers in Peterboro learning of reform with/from her cousin Gerrit Smith and his family. It was in Peterboro that Cady met abolitionist Henry Brewster Stanton. It was also in Peterboro that Henry proposed to Elizabeth. The young married couple even spent part of their honeymoon in Peterboro! Elizabeth Cady Stanton introduced her Peterboro cousin Elizabeth Smith Miller to Amelia Bloomer. Miller was wearing her trouser outfit. Bloomer advocated for the trouser costume in her newspaper for women’s health, and thus Miller’s outfit became called bloomers!  The cornerstone of the Peterboro Women’s Heritage program rests/props upon these two Elizabeth: Peterboro Heritage programs begin the third day of March, the month celebrating Women’s History, and these two cousins named after the same Grandmother Elizabeth Livingston march through many of the programs scheduled during 2012. On the green where the Elizabeth cousins walked as teenagers, the 20th Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend will commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War. The encampment is not only about the military aspect of men who served, but also about the role of women during the Civil War. During Equality Day Observance, Stanton will be the subject of presentations at 2 p.m. on August 25 and 26. On Saturday author Penny Colman will speak on her research for her book Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony: A Friendship that Changed the World and on Sunday Norman K. Dann PhD will present the influence of Peterboro on Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and his research for an upcoming book Cousins of Reform: Gerrit Smith and Elizabeth C. Stanton. A state historical marker in Peterboro pays respect to Miller as the creator of the trouser project, and on Sunday, September 23, stewards at the Gerrit Smith Estate National Historic Landmark will hold the annual Elizabeth Smith Miller In the Kitchen Bloomer Tea catered by the Copper Turret in Morrisville. Abby Kelley Foster, an abolitionist from Massachusetts, will be commemorated by the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum Saturday afternoon, October 20 and then officially inducted during ceremonies in the evening. One day prior to her commemoration day, Judith Wellman PhD. will facilitate a panel discussion among representatives from the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF), and the Worcester Women’s History Project at the Women’s Studies Center at Colgate University in Hamilton. In preparation for 2013 when New York State will commemorate 100 years since Harriet Tubman’s death, Kate Clifford Larson PhD. author of Bound For the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero will provide an overview of her research on Tubman, the interpretation of the Tubman home, and 2012 activities for Tubman. The 2012 Peterboro Heritage season closes during Native American Month with a Joanne Shenandoah concert paying tribute to her ancestor Chief Skenandoah, friend of Peter Smith of Peterboro.  Abolitionist and women’s rights activist Abby Kelley Foster will be inducted into the Women’s Hall of Fame on October 1st in Seneca Falls and into the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum (NAHOF) on Saturday, October 22 at ceremonies to be held at Colgate University, Hamilton NY. Born in Pelham MA January 15, 1811 Kelley was raised a Quaker and became a teacher at the Friends School in Lynn MA in 1829. In 1832, when she lived in Worcester, she was influenced by a speech from radical abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. She joined the Lynn Female Anti-Slavery Society, and in 1837, she, and others, gathered over six thousand signatures on anti-slavery petitions. The Lynn Female Society named her a delegate to the first national Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in New York City. The following year, at the second Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women, Abby Kelley gave her first speech against slavery with a mob threatening to burn down Pennsylvania Hall.
Abby and fellow radical abolitionist Stephen Foster married in 1845 and bought a farm in Worcester MA. Abby gave birth to their daughter, Alla, in 1847. Kelley faced hostile audiences from within and from outside the abolition movement in her five decades of advocating for immediate abolition of slavery and for advocating leaving churches that did not condemn slavery. At 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 22, Stacey Robertson PhD. will present Abby Kelley Foster: A Radical Voice in the West, the first program in the annual afternoon Upstate Institute Inductee Symposia. Robertson states, “Abby Kelley Foster single handedly transformed the nature of the western antislavery movement in the 1840s. From her first visit in the summer of 1845 she inspired hundreds of abolitionists to reconsider their approach to the movement and embrace a more uncompromising position. Women found her irresistible and she helped to organize dozens of female anti-slavery societies in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. She also convinced several women to join her in the lecturing field, devoting themselves full-time to the movement. No other person impacted western antislavery more than Abby Kelley Foster.” Save the Date for 2012 Civil War Weekend 09/13/2011
 The Peterboro Civil War Weekend Committee announces plans for the 20th Annual Peterboro Civil War Weekend to be held on June 9 and 10, 2012. The annual event coincides with the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War commemorated throughout the nation. Peterboro had a pivotal role in the ignition of the Civil War because of Gerrit Smith, who was an influential leader in anti-slavery efforts – a movement that led to the Civil War. Smith’s support of John Brown caused a direct ignition of the Civil War. For two decades the Peterboro encampment has demonstrated many aspects of military and civilian life in the mid-1800s. In recent years exhibits and programs on abolition and the Underground Railroad have been added. The committee plans to develop more programs in 2012 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Wellman to Keynote Annual Peterboro Tea 08/30/2011
 Dr. Judith Wellman, well known scholar and author on the history of women’s rights and the Underground Railroad, will be the keynote speaker on Sunday, September 25 at 12:30 p.m. at the Annual In the Kitchen Bloomer Tea held at the Smithfield Community Center in Peterboro to celebrate Elizabeth Smith Miller’s birthday and women’s rights heritage. Miller, daughter of Ann and Gerrit Smith, is credited with creating a trouser costume in the mid 1800s that became a symbol of the women’s movement.
Dr. Wellman, author of The Road to Seneca Falls, will describe Peterboro’s role in the women’s movement, including the influence of Gerrit and Ann Smith during the summers that Elizabeth Cady Stanton spent in Peterboro, the debates over dress reform, and the inclusion of women in the Liberty League convention. Wellman states, “Everybody knows about Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her work for women's rights. But few people understand how important her cousins, Gerrit and Ann Smith and their daughter Elizabeth Smith Miller, were in shaping her reform agenda. Stanton and Elizabeth Smith Miller had a lifelong friendship, based on their shared sense of humor and their commitment to women's rights (including dress reform). From Gerrit Smith, Stanton gained access to ideas and people at the highest levels of antislavery organization. (If you) want to hear the backstory of the Seneca Falls convention, come to this talk!”  Congressman Paul Tonko joined officials from the National Park Service; Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor; I LOVE NEW YORK; the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation; and others today to announce a joint tourism initiative that aims to increase visitation to upstate New York by highlighting historic sites, museums, and tours dedicated to interpreting the story of the Underground Railroad (UGRR). Historically, about eight out of 10 national travelers have included a cultural, arts, heritage or historic activity or event while on a trip of 50 miles or more. This represents a significant contribution to the State’s vital $50 billion a year tourism industry. “The Underground Railroad is one of the greatest stories in our nation’s history, and I am proud of the commitment that Interior and the National Park Service are making to ensure it’s told far and wide,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “Encouraging people to visit these hallowed sites will not only honor the men and women who risked so much in the name of equality and freedom, but will also drive tourism and help spur local economies in New York.”
As a major part of this collaborative initiative, from September 10th through 15th I LOVE NEW YORK will lead a familiarization tour* of historic sites and museums related to the Underground Railroad and slavery in New York, crossing the state with journalists from six different media outlets and a tour wholesaler, all from the United Kingdom. Many of these sites have received promotional and marketing support from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor (ECNHC), which has recently been inducted into the National Park Service Network to Freedom Program** in recognition of its important work linking and promoting UGRR sites along the New York State Canal System. New Work on Lucretia Mott to be Presented 08/11/2011
 Lucretia Coffin Mott was one of the most famous and controversial women in nineteenth-century America. Mott was viewed in her time as a dominant figure in the dual struggles for racial and sexual equality. In the first biography of Mott in thirty years, historian Carol Faulkner reveals the motivations of Mott’s activism and interest in peace, temperance, prison reform, religious freedom, and Native American rights. Mott was among the first white Americans to call for an immediate end to slavery. Her long-term collaboration with white and black women in the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society was remarkable. Mott was known as the "moving spirit" of the first women's rights convention at Seneca Falls in 1848. She envisioned women's rights not as a new and separate movement, but rather as an extension of the universal principles of liberty and equality.
At 2 p.m. Sunday, August 28, Carol Faulkner Ph.D. will discuss her new biography Lucretia Mott's Heresy: Abolition and Women's Rights in Nineteenth-Century America and sign books at the National Abolition Hall of Fame and Museum, 5255 Pleasant Valley Road, Peterboro NY. Mott was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005 in the first group to be honored. | WelcomeYou've found the official blog for Madison County Tourism, We are located in the heart of Central New York State just minutes from Syracuse and Utica. Stop back often and visit us soon!    Blog RollErie Canalway National Heritage Corridor CategoriesAll ArchivesApril 2012 | ||
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