Save the date as the 2025 Annual Conference is well into the planning stages! The conference will be held May 28 through May 31, 2025, in Rochester, N.Y. The Doubletree by Hilton Hotel will serve as our headquarters hotel with a great rate of $159.00 per nig

Hotel Reservations for the guest room block may be made here

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We have a full schedule of events, museum visits, tool sales, and member displays planned. On Thursday, May 29, we will travel to the Genesee Country Village & Museum, the largest living history museum in New York State. The museum was chartered in 1966, to preserve the architecture of the Genesee Valley region in a recreated historic village, providing context for the telling of New York State and 19th-century American history. We will have the opportunity to explore the village of 68 historic buildings, museums, and trades shops, all of which are handicap accessible. Costumed interpreters will share the stories of the historic buildings, and journeymen and apprentices will demonstrate their crafts, which include coopering, shoemaking, dressmaking, pottery, woodworking, printing, pharmacology, and more. It will certainly be a full day of learning and exploration. 

   

After dinner on your own, we will be entertained with a “whatsit” session with our renowned host Terry Page. Friday’s activities will include visits to the George Eastman House Museums in downtown Rochester. George Eastman was a leader in developing film technology in the late 19th and early 20th century. The film library and museum is the world leader in the collection of all aspects of film preservation, conservation, and collecting. The large museum was completed in 1989 and the collections and exhibitions were moved out of the Eastman House and into this modern climate controlled and accessible building. George Eastman’s house has since been returned to a museum dedicated to preserving the home and furnishings of the Eastman family as it was left in 1932 at George Eastman’s death. 

   

On Friday afternoon we will travel to Victor, N.Y. to visit the Valentown Museum. Valentown Hall, a 19th Century, four story building constructed by Levi & Alanson Valentine to be a shopping plaza and community center (complete with underground parking!) at a busy crossroads, it soon became a home for the local Grange. Today it is an intriguing Museum housing many exhibits that depict historic made- in-America tools, artifacts and furnishings that represent rural life in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. The landmark four-story building is a rare example of 19th century architecture that has remained almost unaltered since its construction in 1879. 

   

After dinner on your own, we will return to the hotel ballroom for a live tool auction presented by Great Planes Trading Company. There will be 250 lots of tools, antiques, and irresistible objects to bid on! 

   

Saturday will be dedicated to member tool displays, tool exchange, and a variety of presentations by members including past EAIA President Dana Shoaf, of Middletown, Md., who will share information and a presentation about his large collection of 19th Century photographs of craftspeople with the tools of their trade. Another presenter is long time member Frank Kosmerl of Victor, N.Y., who will share his extensive collection and expertise of surveying, and surveying tools. Additional presenters will be announced at a later date. The theme for our conference is “Tools & Trades Along the Erie Canal.”

     

Saturday evening will conclude the conference. The always popular annual silent auction will bring lots of competition for the great hand-crafted objects, antiques, books, and more! The conference will end with a banquet, awards ceremony, and a program on the history of the Erie Canal by Craig Williams, Canal Historian. Did you know that the canal was called the “mother of cities,” because it gave rise to so many cities, towns and villages along its passage? Rochester is one of them. We can’t wait to spend time with you there!