Browse Items (1399 total)

From a hillside looking approximately southwest, view shows part of the watershed supplying Hemlock Lake and ultimately the city of Rochester, NY. At the time of this photograph the town's population would have been around 1,700 people, still…

Overlooking Lake Ontario, this amusement park has remained in operation since its opening in 1879--making it America's fourth-oldest such operation. It originated as a trolly destination in an era without air conditioning; temperatures due to the…

At the time of this photograph in the early 1900s, Rochester's public market had been in operation for more than seventy years. Initially located on Main Street just west of the Genesee River, it opened in 1827 and then moved to its current location…

A background of weightlifting and wrestling prepared McFadden (1868-1955) for his advocacy of physical fitness--or "physical culture" as it was called at the time. His entrepreneurial talents encompassed exercise equipment, dietary advice and,…

Hand-colored photograph shows "Old Main," built in 1871 to house the new Geneseo Normal and Training School. Since 1826 the town had been known for its highly regarded Temple Hill Academy, but a rift within the Presbyterian Church threatened its…

Postcard shows township located in Potter County, formed in 1804 and so remote that as of the 1830s one gazetteer wrote: "So little indeed is the county known or visited, that its very representatives in the assembly have scarce traversed it"…

Five miles downstream from here, the Genesee River empties into Lake Ontario at Charlotte, and the base of the falls has been a major spawning ground for salmon and lake trout until non-native fish like the alewife reduced their numbers. The…

A mile and a half downstream from Rochester's Upper Falls (later, "High Falls"), its Middle Falls originally had a height of 25 feet and were featured in Thomas Davies' 1768 engraving of the area. Here, we see one of two masonry dams built at the…

Following the success of George Eastman's introduction of affordable cameras, the company's manufacturing infrastructure expanded rapidly. Postcard announces Rochester company as the "largest industry of its kind in the world." At its height in the…

At nearly 100 feet in height, the "High Falls" were a determining factor in the location of Rochester. Mills took advantage of the drop and the Genesee River's water flow in the form of mills, beginning in 1807 and especially in the years following…