INDUSTRY used the D&R Canal for nearly 100 years to transport its goods from New York to Philadelphia. At its peak the canal carried more tonnage yearly than the Erie.

   Today it provides drinking water for more than 1 million people. Designated a state park in 1974, it is the most traveled and used park in New Jersey, according to Linda Mead, executive director of the D&R Greenway Land Trust. She says 2 million visitors use the canal each year for recreation.

   ”It’s something that’s part of people’s everyday lives,” she says. “They walk their dogs, they ride their bikes, they enjoy it on a regular basis.”

   To celebrate the canal’s 175th anniversary, the Greenway is presenting an exhibit, Ribbon of Life: The D&R Canal at 175, at its Johnson Education Center in Princeton through Aug. 14.

   ”The fact of how (the canal) is woven into our lives is something we wanted to celebrate with this exhibit,” Ms. Mead says from her office in the barn.

   Archival photographs and postcard images comprise the exhibit, supplemented by paintings and seasonal photographs of the canal. Trenton’s population quadrupled after the canal’s opening in 1833. The industrial boom is portrayed by images of factories and people at work: the smokestacks of the Lambertville Rubber Company and Roebling’s Trenton Wire Mills puff alongside the canal. Mountains of material wait to be loaded onto vessels.

   Jack Koeppel, the Greenway’s curator, found an “absolute treasure” of images and facts when selecting material to tell the canal’s story, Ms. Mead says. These included hand-painted vintage postcards and a Century Magazine account of a canal trip taken by a group of aristocratic New Yorkers.

   ”One of the things (Mr. Koeppel) wanted to do was create a sense of taking a trip on the canal,” Ms. Mead says. “He also wanted to show how people interacted with the canal.”

   A viewer follows the canal through the towns and cities of Stockton, Lambertville, Trenton, Kingston, Griggstown and New Brunswick. The canal linked manufacturing centers to markets, with New York and Pennsylvania gaining the most obvious benefits. In the 1860s and ‘70s Pennsylvania coal was the chief cargo, used to fuel New York furnaces. The rise of railroads caused the canal to lose profitability. After 1892, the canal never again made money, though it remained open as a shipping conduit until 1932.

   Industry was not the canal’s only use. It became a destination for sightseers and pleasure seekers. Ribbon of Life presents an on-board perspective of a group of travelers who toured the canal on the Schooner Waburn in 1893.

   ”It’s so interesting to learn about this couple at the end of the century who decided that instead of going and riding through the canals of Europe they would ride through the canals of their own backyard,” Ms. Mead says.

   Excerpts from the July and August 1887 issues of Century Magazine supplement the photos. The account is of a group of New York City residents who rented a barge, captain, deck boy, four mules and a mule boy named Monahan and traveled from Bordentown to New Brunswick.

   Ribbon of Life is also presented to celebrate the Greenway’s 20th anniversary. When the organization was first envisioned in 1989, two of its founders were directly associated with the canal. Jim Amon was the head of the D&R Canal Commission and Rosemary Blair worked with Canal Watch.

   ”The initial idea was to protect lands along the canal and the streams and tributaries that flow into it as a way to protect water quality for the region,” Ms. Mead says. Though the mission has grown significantly, Ms. Mead adds, “Water quality is still one of the key reasons why we protect land.”

   Since its founding the Greenway has preserved nearly 13,000 acres, valued at more than $282 million. Originally named Delaware & Raritan Greenway, the organization changed its name to more accurately portray its work as a land trust, as well as to reflect its expanded focus.

   Ribbon of Life serves as a means to celebrate a space that is at the heart of the nonprofit’s founding and central to its continuing mission. “Thinking of how we can create more awareness in our communities about water quality and trails and how open space is woven into everybody’s everyday life, the canal seemed the appropriate way to go about that,” Ms. Mead says.

   In fact, creating awareness of the importance of preserving open space is tied into all its exhibits. “They’re all about an aspect of the work we do and focused on creating an awareness about that,” Ms. Mead says. “We want to make people think when they look at these things.”

   Of the issue of preserving land, Ms. Mead says, “Public awareness has grown significantly.” She cites numerous reasons: the current economic crisis, climate change and a person’s simple desire to maintain a “sense of peace in nature near their home.”

   The economic crisis has created problems as well as opportunities for the Greenway, such as a lack of public funding. “Without a continued source of public funding it will be impossible to keep up the momentum of preserved land,” Ms. Mead says.

   Still, she doesn’t see the impact of current events harming them in the long-term. “In some ways (the economic crisis) has had a positive impact in that people value the things that are close to their home even more,” Ms. Mead says. “And so, having the visibility of the Johnson Education center, having the exhibits that draw people in to think about the process has actually helped us to do more work in preservation.”

   The Greenway moved to Princeton in 2006. Before that it occupied an old farmhouse on Canal Road in Griggstown. “It was a very workable office but it had absolutely no visibility,” Ms. Mead says. “We couldn’t host a meeting let alone an art exhibit. Given the current economic crisis and the lack of public funding, if we were still up there and hadn’t become a visible part of the community, I think we would have a very difficult time maintaining an organization anywhere close to the level we’re at here. Visibility makes all the difference.”

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  Ribbon of Life: The D&R Canal at 175 is on view at the D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Johnson Education Center, One Preservation Place, Princeton, through Aug. 14. This exhibit will also be shown at Prallsville Mills, Route 29, Stockton, Aug. 15-Sept. 27, and Johnson & Johnson headquarters, One Johnson & Johnson Plaza, New Brunswick, Dec. 4-Jan. 18; 609-924-4646; www.drgreenway.org