Old Fort Niagara to host 300th anniversary history symposium

Old Fort Niagara press release

Registration is now open for Old Fort Niagara’s 300th anniversary history symposium: “Politics, Trade and Diplomacy on the New York Frontier.” The event will be held Saturday, April 25, at the Fort Niagara Officers Club adjacent to the Old Fort. Hours for the program are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Speakers will include:

•Michael Laramie, a military history writer and the author of nine books on colonial America and the Civil War. Laramie will speak on King George’s War on Lake Ontario (1744-48).

•Jon Parmenter, associate professor of history at Cornell University and the author of “The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia, 1534-1701.” He will present “Reconsidering Fort Niagara in the Context of Haudenosaunee Territoriality, 1700-1765.”

•Maeve Kane, associate professor of history at the University at Albany and author of “Shirts Powdered Red: Haudenosaunee Gender, Trade and Exchange Across Three Centuries.” Kane will speak about gender, trade and diplomacy on the New York frontier.

•Richard Weyhing, associate professor and department chair of history at SUNY Oswego. He will present “A Thing That Could Disturb the Union of Two Great Crowns: Niagara, Oswego and the Struggle for the Great Lakes in an Age of Empire.”

•Kevin Gélinas, author, researcher, and scholar of French colonial material culture will provide an overview of the material culture of French troops stationed around the Great Lakes between 1683 and 1760.

The program will conclude with a panel discussion led by Dr. Joseph Stahlman, director of the Seneca Nation’s Seneca-Iroquois National Museum-Onöhsagwë:de‘ Culture Center. The panel will discuss the Indigenous perspective on the era.

Advance registration is required as capacity is limited. Tickets to the event are $75 (plus Eventbrite service fee). Morning coffee and lunch are included. More information and a registration link are available on Old Fort Niagara’s website, www.oldfortniagara.org.