Oswego, NY, January 6, 2015 - The first stop for the Great Shipwrecks of NY’s Great Lakes traveling exhibit is in Oswego, NY, at the Tyler Art Gallery in Penfield Hall Library at SUNY Oswego. The exhibit developed for the 2014 Great New York State Fair and updated for this installation will be on display through January 22, 2015.

Exhibit hours are 10 am to 4 pm Monday-Friday, including Martin Luther Day. Admission and parking are free. The public is welcome.

Exhibit components include interpretive panels highlighting shipwrecks in Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Champlain, the Finger Lakes, Lake George and the St. Lawrence River; videos; and a newly-built replica of the ‘turtle ship’ Radeau that sunk in Lake Champlain.

Freshwater science technology including a remotely-operated underwater vehicle and a Great Lakes Research Consortium in-water sensing buoy; water recreation equipment; and national Stop Aquatic Hitchhikers information on slowing the spread of aquatic invasive species are also part of the exhibit.

"This Great Shipwrecks exhibit offers students and the greater community a distinctive learning experience focused on New York’s unique maritime history," says SUNY Oswego Provost Dr. Lorrie Clemo, who serves as Vice-Chair of the New York Sea Grant Board of Governors.

"Capturing the fascinating maritime heritage of New York State in this exhibit is proving to be a great way to encourage interest in education, underwater science innovation, and waterfront tourism as an economic engine for our coastal communities," says exhibit coordinator Dave White, New York Sea Grant Coastal Recreation and Tourism Specialist and associate director of the Great Lakes Research Consortium.


The Great Shipwrecks of NY’s Great Lakes traveling exhibit is in Oswego through January 22, 2015. Photo: SUNY Oswego

Sponsors of the Great Shipwrecks at the Tyler Art Gallery exhibit are SUNY Oswego, the Great Lakes Research Consortium, the Great Lakes Seaway Trail, and New York Sea Grant.

New York Sea Grant coordinated the exhibit development in partnership with the Great New York State Fair, Great Lakes Research Consortium, and Great Lakes Seaway Trail. Lake Champlain Sea Grant, the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, H. Lee White Marine Museum, National Aquatics Services, Mexico Cub Scouts and others participated in the State Fair exhibit. Federal funding for The Great Shipwrecks exhibit was secured through a Great Lakes Seaway Trail National Scenic Byway grant.

Tyler Art Gallery, a teaching gallery regularly used by art classes and a training base for the museum studies program students, is open to the public on the second floor of Penfield Hall. Learn more at www.nyseagrant.org/shipwreck.

On YouTube: Shipwrecks Exhibit At SUNY Oswego



Watertown, NY, Jan 6, 2015 - New York Sea Grant's coastal recreation and tourism specialist Dave White stopped by Watertown's WWNY-TV 7 News This Morning studios to talk with its newscasters about the program's "Great Shipwrecks of New York" exhibit. The display, which made its debut late last August at the New York State Fair in Syracuse, will spend the next three weeks at SUNY Oswego.

The exhibit features wrecks in Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence River, the Finger Lakes, Lake George and Lake Champlain. Why keep these wrecks on the lake floor? "Many of the wrecks found throughout the Great Lakes are open to divers and, through archeological assessments, have provided us with a wealth of historical information about the development of our country and commerce as well as the battles we were in," says White.

There are a dozen wrecks highlighted in the exhibit because "we want to feature the different boating styles and types of boats that people can find on the lake bottom," says White. "Every wreck has its own story, so there's a great deal we can learn from each of them. Many of them are in deep water and there are hundreds that have yet to be discovered."


Featured in "Great Shipwrecks of New York" is a collection of maps, interpretive panels (see image above) and videos that help to paint a fuller picture of what these wrecks are really like. There is a focus on invasive species, because, as White says, "the damage some of these invaders can have on these very fragile wrecks sometimes becomes a concern."

The exhibit is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday through January 22 and will be at SUNY Oswego's Tyler Art Gallery. Admission is free.

Since April 2006, White has been bringing Sea Grant's "message" to the morning masses at WWNY TV 7, a Fox affiliate in downtown Watertown, during one of the highest rated TV blocks in the "wake-up hours," the 6:30-7 am stretch.

Sea Grant's 'five minutes of fame' - which potentially reaches around 10,000 viewers in New York's Jefferson and Northern Oswego Counties - has featured topics over the years such as boating safety, aquatic invasive species, diving in search of sunken wrecks, the dune and Salmon River stewards program, shoreline land issues, tourism, and marine safety. 


On YouTube: Shipwreck Exhibit to Share Stories of Maritime History



If you walked around the New York State Fair this past year you probably found your way into a big tent that took you into the stories of some of New York's great shipwrecks. But if not, you're getting another chance. As Brian Dwyer reports, the exhibit is back now in Oswego with some brand new tales of maritime history.

Oswego, NY, January 6, 2015 - It's the word within the word. History. Story. All great aspects of our past, have a great tale that makes them interesting. Shipwrecks have stories within stories, making them for many, as interesting as they come.

"Many of us have been out on boats," Dave White of the New York Sea Grant said. "We understand boating. We get a feel for boating. To think about what happens on these various boats that might have brought them down? What were the people doing? Especially when we're talking about the 1700's and 1800's."

If you walked around the State Fair this year, you may have seen the Sea Grant's big display. There were panels, videos, replicas, all sharing those stories of the boats and their passengers.

"If you think about the David Mills, which is a recreational dive just offshore of Oswego, it actually went aground because the smoke from fires in Canada was so dense on the lake, it had to follow the lake shore and it hit a shoal," White said.

It also had stories about those who find them.

"Many times it's hit or miss," White said. "They're just out doing scans to see what they can find. But many times they're out there looking for specific vessel and they'll find others as they go. It takes many many years and a lot of research to find where they went down.

It's a display that has been recreated for the Tyler Art Gallery at the Penfield Hall Library at SUNY Oswego. It opened Monday and will be up until January 22. If it's successful, it'll go to museums across the state.

"So it's another opportunity for folks that didn't get a chance to see it at the fair to come out and see it. For those who did see it at the fair to come on back out, see it again with some of the new things that we have there as well," White said.

White promising those great stories in our great history.

The exhibit at SUNY Oswego is free of charge and is open on weekdays from 10 until 4 p.m.



More Info:

New York Sea Grant (NYSG), a cooperative program of Cornell University and the State University of New York, is one of 33 university-based programs under the National Sea Grant College Program (NSGCP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NSGCP engages this network of the nation’s top universities in conducting scientific research, education, training and extension projects designed to foster science-based decisions about the use and conservation of our aquatic resources. Through its statewide network of integrated services, NYSG has been promoting coastal vitality, environmental sustainability, and citizen awareness about the State’s marine and Great Lakes resources since 1971.

For updates on Sea Grant activities: www.nyseagrant.org has RSS, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube links. NYSG also offers a free e-list sign up via www.nyseagrant.org/coastlines for its flagship publication, NY Coastlines/Currents, which is published several times a year.