The Museum collects printed and manuscript materials, maps, photographs, motion picture film, digital materials, video and audio recordings (such as oral histories), paintings, artifacts and other items which deal with the Enlarged Erie Canal, the Old Erie Canal, the New York State Barge Canal, the lateral canals, and the pre-Erie Canals of New York State.
Correspondence between John P. Wood and various family members and business associates. Wood and his sons, Able and Abram, ran a shipping business on the Erie Canal.