Aggressive fundraising and creative public programming at the National Canal Museum in Easton, PA

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-b1_3canal-rfeb08,0,4971537.story?coll=all-newslocal-hed

I have to admit, I had a pang of jealousy here--I wish I read more often about railroad and transit museums being this bold in their fundraising, educational planning, and strategic planning.

Ditto -- I have to say, I can't think of any other transportation museums (marine, air) that have gone this route, either.

TJ Gaffney

The Express Times also ran an article on the same subject, with some additional information. It is online at:

http://www.nj.com/news/expresstimes/pa/index.ssf?/base/news-14/110785705729130.xml

In addition to today’s Express Times and Morning Call articles, the National Canal Museum was in the news a couple of weeks ago when the Governor of Pennsylvania diverted part ($1.8 million) of a $5 million dollar grant meant for a baseball stadium to the museum. The money will be used for the new Elaine and Peter Emrick Technology Center. This building will house archives and numerous displays, such as a 42â€

I think our colleagues at Spencer Shops, Pennsylvania Trolley Museum, Electric City, and Seashore, as well as we at National Capital Trolley Museum, are moving forward with some fairly comprehensive plans based on well thought strategy. And folks at Railways to Yesterday have been quite active with collections management in the last few years by deaccessioning those items that do not fit the central theme of their collection. I am sure there are others out there as well who are moving along these same lines.

Wesley

I did not mean to imply that no one in railroad preservation is doing creative educational programming (Electric City is indeed EXCELLENT at this) or collections management.

I was simply struck by this organization's singular success at wheedling a huge investment out of a non-traditional funder. I mean, 1.4 million bucks from NSF to fund interpretation at a transportation/history of technology museum--WOW. It was the size and the source I found worthy of note.