An extensive gathering of pleasing to the eye Black and White plus some color and hand-coloured images - A collection of superb Gallery Prints on archival quality Fine Art Paper or Artists Quality Matte Canvas - Creating a fabulous History, Nostalgia and Decorative Wall Art Centre of images dating back through the 1800s to early 1900 Niagara

Note: Each picture holds a story from long ago.
The facts about the event or location depicted in each of these pictures are noted in a related to the image document that is included with your artwork and is suitable for display with your picture. You’ll find these true stories fascinating and many are stranger than fiction

Decorate your home or place of business walls with some interesting conversation pieces from the past.

Niagara Writer Old Time Gallery Prints – Official Gallery Print Edition

Subject:
Niagara – The Region along the Niagara River Border in 1853
It’s a collection of scenes and stories that tourist from that time in long ago Niagara experienced…

The following, about the best approach to view the Falls from above (that is from the south or upper river rapids) is as true today as it was written about in 1808 and again in this 1853 article…

NIAGARA should be first approached from above, and from the Canada shore. Let the tourist who, with his face Niagara-ward, stands at Buffalo some bright summer morning, resist the voice from within that whispers in his ear — "Take the cars in an hour you will be there'" Let him choose rather the little steamer that plies down and across the lake to Chippewa There let him forget the Americanism which holds it undignified to walk when one can ride, and pass on foot over the three miles which separate him from Niagara…

Niagara # 1853 13290
Niagara Falls

…"See Naples and die," says the Italian proverb. You knew that with the view of Niagara one great chapter of your experience would be closed up. So you seat yourself in the cool shadow, light a cigar, and watch its blue smoke curling up between you and the white rainbow-tipped spray rising from before the great cataract. You pore lazily over the columns of a last week's journal which you have brought with you, and have forgotten to throw away. Yet ever and anon you lift your eye toward that innumerable rush of waters, and sweep around the circumference of that majestic curve, and feel that you are growing into Niagara. And now, at the distance of months, or years it may be, as you close your eyes and in imagination look again upon that scene, you do not wonder that we have chosen it for our opening illustration; or that the Swedish Singer should twice have commissioned the artist to paint it for her.

You spring up with a sudden impulse, and hurry, over the space which separated you from Table Rock, and the Fall is full before you. You had been told by some who had approached Niagara from below, that their first feeling was one of disappointment at its apparent want of elevation. But you feel nothing, of the kind. Had honest old Father Hennepin stood by your side, and told you that, the height of the Fall was six hundred feet, you would have believed him…

1853 Niagara # 1853 13290 is available in the following folio sizes

Niagara # 1853 13291
Horseshoe Fall

The most complete view of the Horseshoe Fall is that from the bottom of the cliff, at a point near the ferry landing. If, however, the water is unusually high, the quiet pool which the artist has depicted in the foreground, becomes a fierce and angry rush of waters, foaming above and around the Jagged rocks. If the water is very low, the bed of this pool is entirely dry. Two years ago the scene presented the aspect here represented during the whole summer Last year there were but few days when the whole spot was not overflowed. The current nearest the Canada shore runs-up-stream, as though seeking an outlet in the direction from which it came. The middle distance is marked by a line of white foam, beyond which the current runs down-stream. The centre of the Horseshoe Fall is directly in front, defined on the right by the verge of Table Rock, and on the left by the upper extremity of Goat Island.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13291 is available in the following folio sizes

Niagara # 1853 13292
The Tower

A very charming glimpse of that portion of the Fall directly in front of the tower may be caught through a clump of trees which stand a little above the ferry landing. The limitation of view heightens the effect, when contrasted with the unlimited prospect of the Fall presented from almost every other point on the Canada side.

It is no very difficult task for a stout pedestrian to make his way along under the edge of the precipice from the Ferry up to the foot of the Fall.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13292 is available in the following folio sizes

The path winds among huge fragments of rock which have tumbled from above, and is slippery with the falling spray. You stop to rest upon a huge rock, where a couple of rough-coated men arc fishing. They tell you that it is named "Bass Rock," and you recognize the propriety of the appellation, as you observe the finny spoil that has repaid their labor. The water rushes foaming and eddying around the fragments of rock, sometimes rising in great swells to the spot on which you stand. Fragments of timber, their ends rounded and worn like pebbles on a wave-beaten shore, are scattered around; some groaning and tossing in the water, others stranded high and dry upon the rocks, where they have been flung by some swell higher than usual. You are so near the foot of the Fall that the descending sheet water occupies the entire field of vision; the immense rock which interposes between Bass Rock and the descending water has as yet received no distinctive name… (get the complete story at the “Old Times Bookshop” in the book titled “Guide to 1853 Niagara”)

1853 Niagara # 1853 13293 is available in the following folio sizes

…In the early morning you commit yourself to the little boat in which you are to be ferried over to the American shore. Your half-felt misgivings are dissipated as you see the dexterous manner with which the brawny boatman handles his oars, and takes advantage of the “up-eddy” and "down-eddy;" and in a few minutes you are landed close at the foot of the American Fall.

Half-way up the ferry stairs is an opening which gives access to a path along the foot of the perpendicular precipice to the verge of the falling water. From this point, in the early morning, may be gained one of the most picturesque views of Niagara. Your position gives you the full perception of the height of the Fall, which forms a standard by which you measure that of the Horseshoe Fall which stretches away in the distant perspective…

1853 Niagara # 1853 13294 is available in the following folio sizes

…From the bridge leading to Goat Island the Rapids present that same appearance of plunging from the sky which, renders their view from the Canadian shore so impressive. So thought a young man whom I saw one calm moonlight evening leaning on the railing, and contemplating the rush of waters.

"They are beautiful, wonderful — but not quite what I expected," said he, as we fell into conversation. "I had supposed that the Falls were higher."

He had hurried from the hotel, ignorant which way to go, and supposed that he was now looking at the Great Cataract.

Goat Island — so let it still he called in spite of the foppery which has of late attempted to change its name to Iris Island—presents an aspect almost as wild as it did before it had been rendered accessible to human foot. Were it not for the path which girdles its entire circumference, and the rustic seats disposed here and there', one might fancy that he was the first who had ever sauntered through its grand and stately woods. The beauty and variety of the trees on this island are wonderful. There is…

1853 Niagara # 1853 13295 is available in the following folio sizes

Niagara # 1853 13296
American Falls

broken, twisted, and contorted in every direction. They seem to be starting back in horror from the abyss before them, and to wind their long finger-like roots around the rocks, in order to maintain their hold.

One of these, an aged birch, growing upon the ridge known as the " Hog's Back," affords a resting place from which to gain one of the finest views of the American Falls. Right in front is the small Central Fall, and the footbridge which leads to Luna Island, with its trees dwarfed and stunted by the weight of frozen spray which loads them in the winter. Beyond is the serrated line of the American Fall; while the distance is filled up with the receding lines of the banks of the river below.

A few paces—past groups of blithe tourists, past companies of sombre Indian girls in blue blankets and high-crowned hats, with their gay-wares spread out at their feet—brings you to the Biddle staircase, down which you wind to the foot of the precipice.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13296 is available in the following folio sizes

Niagara # 1853 13297
Horseshoe Fall

This fall of rock was seen by the artist who has given us so faithful a picture of its effects. He was just recovering from an illness, and while sitting in his room at the Clifton House, on the opposite Canadian shore, he was startled by a crash, almost like that of an earthquake. Tottering to the window, he beheld the immense curtain of rock in front of the tower precipitated from its ancient hold, and lying in huge masses upon the ice below; while a few streams of water trickled down the brown cliff, where but a moment before nothing had been seen but a surface of dazzling ice. The water at this extremity of the Fall descends in light feathery forms, contrasting finely with the solid masses in which it seems to plunge down the centre of the sweeping curve. The tower is perched upon the very brink of the precipice, so close that the next fall of rock must carry it along with it.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13297 is available in the following folio sizes

The path to the right from the foot of the staircase, leads to the entrance to the Cave of the "Winds, which lies behind the Central Fall. It is hard to imagine how this cavern missed being called the "Cave of ?olus" by those classicists who have exhausted ancient mythology for appellations for our American scenery. But it has escaped this infliction; and the "Cave of the Winds" it is, and will be. From the little house close by the entrance, where the requisite changes of dress are made, you look down into an abyss of cold gray mist, driven ever and anon like showers of hail into your face, as you grope your way down the rocky slope. Haste not, pause not. Here is the platform, half-seen, half-felt amid the blinding spray. Shade of Father Hennepin, this is truly a "dismal roaring" of wind and water. We are across — and stand secure on the smooth shaly bottom of the cave. Look up: what a magnificent arch is formed by the solid rock on the one side, and the descending mass of water on the other. Which is the solider and firmer you hardly know. Yet look again — for it is sunset — and see what we shall see nowhere else on earth, three rainbows one within another, not half-formed and incomplete, as is the scheme of our daily life; but filling up the complete circle, perfect and absolute

1853 Niagara # 1853 13298 is available in the following folio sizes

Upon an isolated rock at the very brink of the cataract stands a round tower. It is approached by a long, narrow bridge, resting now upon ledges of solid rock, and now upon loose boulders. From the balcony upon its summit, you can lean far over the edge of the precipice, and there catch the freshness of the cloud of spray that rises evermore from the unseen foot of the great Fall. Or you can climb down the low rock upon which the tower stands, and gather shells and pebbles from within arm's length of the verge of the descent, so gentle, to all appearance, is the current. But be not over-bold. These waters, apparently so gentle, sweep down with a force beyond your power to stem. Not many months ago, a man fell from the bridge into their smooth flow, and was in the twinkling of an eye swept to the brink of the descent. Here he lodged against one of those rocks that lie apparently tottering upon the brow, looking over the fearful descent, with as little power to retrace his course, as he would have had to re-ascend the perpendicular Fall. A rope was floated down to him, which he had just strength to fasten around his body, and he was drawn up from his perilous position…

1853 Niagara # 1853 13299 is available in the following folio sizes

Niagara # 1853 13300
Hermits Cascade

This "Hermit" seems hardly worthy of being made the hero of the Falls. Little is told of him except that he was fond of music and of pacing by night along the margin of the river; that he was alike indisposed for human society and for clean linen. It is said, indeed, that he was accustomed to record his musings in Latin, but as no fragments of these were discovered after his death, we may set the story down as apocryphal. A deeper tragic interest is attached to a tale, now some three years old, which will be told you as you stand by the margin of the Lesser Fall. A party of visitors stood here, in gay discourse. Among them were a young man, his affianced bride, and a laughing child. The young man caught the child in his arms, saying gaily, "Now I shall throw you over” She glided from his hold in affright, half real, half feigned, and plunged into the stream; he sprang after, but the current was stronger than his strength, and swept them both down the smooth slope, and over the Fall. Their bodies, mangled and bruised, were recovered from the rocks below.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13300 is available in the following folio sizes

The pedestrian can hardly find a pleasanter summer day's ramble, than that along the river to Lewiston, descending on the American side, and returning by the opposite bank For a mile below the Falls, where the channel is narrowest, the current is so smooth, that one might fancy he was gazing down into some quiet tarn embosomed in the mountains, were it not that you catch the white margin of the lower Rapids just where the Suspension Bridge stretches its slender line from the summits of the opposing cliffs. In this quiet reach of water plies the little steamer, the "Maid of the Mist." After passing the ugly, bustling little village growing up around the American extremity of the bridge, a path leads through quiet fields and woods along the very verge of the precipice. Here and there some tree growing upon the brink forms a safe balustrade over which you lean, and look down upon the green water dashing furiously through its confined channel far below…

1853 Niagara # 1853 13301 is available in the following folio sizes

The Whirlpool, three miles below the Falls, is an adjunct worthy of Niagara. The stream makes a sharp bend just where the channel is narrowest and the descent of the Rapids the steepest. At the angle the current has scooped out an immense basin, around whose whole circumference the water circles before it can find an outlet. All floating bodies that pass down the river are drawn into the Whirlpool, where they are borne round and round for days, and weeks sometimes, it is said, before they make their escape. A practicable path winds down the bank to the water's edge.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13302 is available in the following folio sizes

A half mile below the Whirlpool is a deep cleft in the precipitous bank, which is connected with a wild Indian legend ascribing terrible convulsions of nature, and even the approach of the fatal white men, to an unauthorized violation of the privacy of a great demon who once abode here This was the scene of a terrible tragedy in the old French wars. A convoy of British soldiers fell into an ambush of Indians at this point, and wore all, with the exception of two, slain outright or driven over the edge of the chasm. The little rivulet which flows over the brink, ran red with the blood of the slaughtered, and thus gained the name, which it still bears, of the "Bloody Run."

1853 Niagara # 1853 13302b is available in the following folio sizes

The artist from whose labors we have so largely borrowed, has made the study of the Great Cataract a labor of love. He has summered and wintered by it. He has painted it by night and by day; by sunlight and by moonlight; under a summer sun, and amid the rigors of a Canadian winter, when the gray rocks wore an icy robe, and the spray congealed into icicles upon his stiffened garments. The sketches from which we have selected, have grown up under his hands for a half score of years; and we can not doubt that many to whom Niagara wears the face of a familiar friend, will find themselves transported to it in imagination, as they look upon the results of his labors;

1853 Niagara # 1853 13303 is available in the following folio sizes

The mere summer tourist sees, however, but half of Niagara. In the winter the great rocks at the foot of the Fall are piled with an accumulation of frozen spray to the depth of half a hundred feet. By creeping cautiously up the slippery ascent, you may stand face to face with the cataract, half-way up its height. Every shrub on the margin is loaded with glittering ice. The thick-branched evergreens are bowed beneath its weight, and bend to the ground like enormous plumes. The face of the cold gray rock is cased in glittering ice, and ribbed with pillars and pilasters, which flash back the reflection of all gems, in the slant rays of the sun.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13304 is available in the following folio sizes

Niagara # 1853 13305
Artist at Niagara

The artist from whose labors we have so largely borrowed, has made the study of the Great Cataract a labor of love. He has summered and wintered by it. He has painted it by night and by day; by sunlight and by moonlight; under a summer sun, and amid the rigors of a Canadian winter, when the gray rocks wore an icy robe, and the spray congealed into icicles upon his stiffened garments. The sketches from which we have selected, have grown up under his hands for a half score of years; and we can not doubt that many to whom Niagara wears the face of a familiar friend, will find themselves transported to it in imagination, as they look upon the results of his labors; and many who may never behold the Falls, will gain some just though inadequate conception of their magnificence and beauty.

1853 Niagara # 1853 13305 is available in the following folio sizes

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