Osher at RIT Examines History of Underground Railroad and Erie Canal

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Rochester Institute of Technology is hosting a morning of lectures focusing on the Underground Railroad and Erie Canal in the last of its summer seminar series. The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Tuesday, Aug. 5, at Osher’s Athenaeum Building, 150 Research Blvd.

Kathryn Murano, project director for the Rochester Museum and Science Center’s newest exhibition on the Underground Railroad, will discuss the paths that courageous freedom seekers followed through Rochester—from Frederick Douglass to Harriet Jacobs and Rev. Thomas James—in RMSC’s “Flight to Freedom: Rochester’s Underground Railroad” exhibition which opened on July 25.

The second speaker is Osher member Tim McDonnell, who is co-coordinator of the New York Geographic Alliance. He will discuss his research on the living legacy of the Erie Canal, locks, dry docks, aqueducts and museums.

For more information about the lectures, call Osher Lifelong Learning at (585) 292-8989 or visit www.rit.edu/osher.

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at RIT is a membership-led organization that stimulates minds and forges friendships among people ages 50 and older who live in Greater Rochester. Members participate in classes, discussions, lectures, social events and travel, while engaging in a range of courses to include the arts, literature, sciences, history and government. The organization was founded in 1987 as The Athenaeum, an affiliate of Rochester Institute of Technology. In 2006, it became an Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, joining a growing national network of more than 100 university-based centers.