Preparing for the Sesquicentennial: Tour of Ezra Cornell’s Achievements in Washington and Vicinity 1843-1844

Join CCW’s unprecedented tour featuring Ezra Cornell’s little-known years in the Washington area.

What:  All day bus tour along a major segment of the original Washington-Baltimore telegraph line.

When:  Saturday, September 20, 2014, 8:15 am until about 4:30 pm.

Where:  Meet at the Hotel Monaco, F Street NW, between 7th and 8th Streets (Gallery Place Metro).  

Designed by Robert Mills and completed in 1840 as the General Post Office for the nation’s capital, this building housed the first Telegraph Office in the United States.  Coffee, tea and pastries will be served together with an expert briefing to launch the tour.

Why:  CCW’s kick-off to Cornell’s one hundred and fiftieth anniversary celebrations.

Like a time machine, our bus will visit sites known to Ezra when he lived and worked here building the experimental telegraph line from Washington to Baltimore.  Learn about influential leaders in his circle of contacts who contributed significantly to his work and to technological advances and scientific research in mid-19th century America.

Experience vicariously the intellectual ferment of Ezra’s times.  Various experts are expected to provide special briefings at some stops on the itinerary.  It all adds up to a prequel to the yet-to-be enacted Morrill Land Grant Act of 1862 and the subsequent founding of Cornell University in 1865.

Parking
Atlantic Parking garage
Entrance on 8th St. NW (between E&F)
Opens 8am (until 3am Sunday)
$20 all day

Costs

Member - $50 - Registration opens 7/27

Non-member - $60 - Registration opens 8/24 (if seats remain available)

Questions and to volunteer:
Bob Day at 301-438-7755, or Linda Jarschauer Johnson at 202-265-4763 or ljj1@cornell.edu