Kirjahaku

Finger Lakes Memories takes a long, mesmerizing look back at a land of 11 lakes, a land of monasteries and mansions, a U.S. president, abolitionists, women's rights activists, Mark Twain, early aviation, and superb universities. Featuring the work of early-20th-century photographer George Bentley Corby, the book reflects the remarkable scenic beauty of the area before commercial and residential development. Poignant and often zestful photographs of farm labors, school chums, and small-town life emerge from a region where, like welcoming hands, the Finger Lakes beckon all to their safe solitudes, there to be inspired, comforted, educated, and encouraged. It is doubtful there is another book that so totally and vividly captures the everyday life of the era.

Learn the exciting story of the railway that changed the country and the masterminds behind it all. A full generation has passed since a New York Central emblem dashed across the countryside on a railroad car, but few could ever forget the greatest railroad in the world. The New York Central System grew from an amalgamation of smaller lines stretching from Albany to Buffalo in the 1830s. Twenty years later, the lines were gathered into a single company. Its phenomenal success did not go unnoticed by Cornelius the Commodore Vanderbilt. In his late sixties, when most men retire, he methodically started acquiring railroads in the New York City and Hudson River region. He then acquired the New York Central and merged it with his Hudson River Railroad. The Commodore and his son William, the foremost rail barons of their age, forged ahead with one of the most dynamic future-directed endeavors in the world-a railroad empire that traversed 11 states and 2 Canadian provinces.

Some twenty miles south of Rochester lies what was historically the crossroads of western New York. Lima and its neighbors in the Genesee Valley are unique in many ways. An excellent network of trails had been developed by the Iroquois long before the area attracted its first permanent settler in 1788. As immigrants streamed westward, inns opened at this crossroads to serve them, and some of the travelers stayed to become farmers, tradesmen, and merchants. In the mid-1800s, Lima had several photography studios and a wealth of architectural gems, many of which still remain. Today, Lima has more than fifty structures listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Around Lima explores the fascinating evolution of Lima and the diverse adjoining towns that were inexorably connected. It illuminates the elegant streets of Lima, the rich heritage of nearby Bloomfield, the covered bridge and stone mills of Honeoye Falls, and the grandeur of the resort days of Avon Springs, which rivaled Saratoga Springs. Appearing within these pages are glimpses of Susan B. Anthony and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, as well as accounts of the Underground Railroad and a winter morning's journey to see Abraham Lincoln.