March 2 – June 19, 2011

Funding for the exhibition provided by:

D&R Greenway Land Trust
William S. Roebling

Over 180 years ago, Commodore Robert Field Stockton, owner and resident of Morven, obtained a charter from the New Jersey State Legislature for the construction of the Delaware & Raritan Canal. The Ribbon of Life: The Delaware & Raritan Canal, on loan from the D&R Greenway Land Trust, graced the elegant rooms once inhabited by the Commodore. Featuring a collection of over fifty images, this exhibit explored the canal as a vibrant site of leisure and industry throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Intertwined with hand-colored views along the canal of cities, towns, factories, and countryside, museum visitors experienced firsthand accounts of canal travel from the perspective of 19th century travelers. These reminiscences recall a time when the D&R Canal was not only a spot for pleasure and relaxation, but home to bustling factories and mills; a time when this Ribbon of Life was the busiest canal in the United States.