Dr. Robert Spiegelman to Speak at OHA on “The Wild, Wild East: New York’s Drama of Westward Expansion,” Sunday, October 7, 2 p.m.

Connective Corridor partner, OHA — in conjunction with its installation of Manifest Destiny & The American West — is offering an illustrated lecture by City University of New York historian Dr. Robert Spiegelman, entitled, “The Wild, Wild East: New York’s Drama of Westward Expansion,” Sunday, October 7 at 2 p.m. in the auditorium at OHA.

This lecture is presented in cooperation with the New York Council for the Humanities. It is free and open to the public.

OHA notes that New York’s early frontier is America’s true “Wild West.” Civilization meant Westward Expansion, but two “obstacles” block the way: Indians and Nature. “Combining dramatic images and fresh research, Spiegelman details this forgotten New York, where settler dreams encounter native lifeways. He explores a “magical crossroads” where immigrants change into nomad farmers, neighbors into rivals, colonists into fighters, soldiers into settlers, land speculators into “second creators,” Indian Country into military tracts named for Roman conquerors, and untamed forests into real estate grids.”

He will revisit Syracuse and Buffalo’s emergence from the ashes of attempted Indian removal and controversial land treaties that have shaped today’s Empire State, and talk about Mnhattan’s rise to prominence via the Erie Canal, which in turn, inflamed a religious upheaval across Central New York that America calls “The Burnt Over District.” Attendees will end leave the lecture with an appreciation of how – against all odds – indigenous New Yorkers retain a toehold in their deforested ancestral homelands.

The installation, Manifest Destiny & The American West, by Buffalo artist Robert Hirsch, will be exhibited at OHA until January 6, 2013, as part of the area-wide art biennial, TONY: 2012 (The Other New York: 2012). TONY 2012 is organized by the Everson Museum of Art in collaboration with ArtRage – The Norton Putter Gallery, Community Folk Art Center, Erie Canal Museum, Light Work, Onondaga Historical Association, Punto de Contacto/Point of Contact, Rosamond Gifford Zoo, Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, SUArt Galleries, Urban Video Project, The Warehouse Gallery, City of Syracuse and XL Projects.

Major funding is provided by The Central New York Community Foundation through the John F. Marsellus Fund.

OHA is located along the Connective Corridor at 321 Montgomery St., Syracuse, NY, 13202. Hours are Wednesday to Friday, 10-4, Saturday and Sunday, 11-4. There is a suggested donation of $3 per patron to visit the museum. Research center hours are Wednesday to Friday, 10-2, Saturday 11-3:30. Adults are $7 per visit to the research center, students $4, OHA members are free. For information, go to cnyhistory.org, or call (315) 428-1864, ext. 312.