Book Talk – Many Voices: Building Erie, the Canal that Changed America
August 30 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
There’s a fascinating, often overlooked connection between the 200-year-old Erie Canal and the rapid development of Great Lakes shipping and the growth of America’s heartland.
This epic 363-mile waterway across rugged upstate New York was designed to connect the Great Lakes and the Atlantic. An improbable engineering marvel of the nineteenth century, the Erie Canal was completed in 1825 and immediately began to transform the flow of American history. This waterway connection between booming New York City’s harbor and the Great Lakes would help create skyrocketing growth in Midwest farms and cities as varied as Milwaukee, Green Bay, Chicago, and Duluth.
Laurie Lawlor is the author of full-color, award-winning nonfiction, Many Voices, Building Erie, the Canal that Changed America (Holiday House) that provides a deep-dive into the lives and contributions of overlooked women, men, and children who worked on the canal. Her discussion will spotlight how the canal helped change Wisconsin and the Midwest. She will explore not only how the canal was created, but also the ways in which it impacted the environment and the lives of the Haudenosaunee whose homeland has centered on upstate New York for centuries. This lively discussion will also highlight how the canal promoted the flow of mail, books, magazines, finished goods, resources, and ideas about social justice, technology, religion, and education across the United States—much like today’s Internet.
When: Sunday, August 30th, 2026 @ 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Where: WMM Riverview Room
Admission: Free
What: 45-minute book talk, followed by Q&A and signing