Canal Boat Children

Eli Whitney Museum

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2013 Summer Program

About two hundred years ago, Eli Whitney's contemporary, DeWitt Clinton, took the dream of connecting America East to West, the vision of building a canal from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, a reality and a revolution. Clinton's grand Erie Canal was completed in just 8 years: a marvel of political will, engineering, and daring. It transformed America.

Build your own Canal boat in 1/2" scale – its team of mules, its cargo, its well-furnished cabin, its family, and especially the children for whom The Canal was their home, school and community. Join the class in constructing a canal (15" wide, 2"deep, 100' long) for your boats; its locks, low bridges, reservoirs and aquaducts, towns and farms. Add its Circus boat and its famous travellers. Each day, live the adventures of Canal Boat children inspired by Peter Spier's wonderful Erie Canal(Doubleday ©1970). With permission of the author.


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