The Erie Canal opened the West-- but getting there could be a deadly gamble, as this 1841 tragedy demonstrated.

We examine the environmental efforts of this unassuming Buffalo jeweler to reclaim the waterfront of the city he loved.

When a fire erupted in the M.H. Birge & Sons Wallpaper Company factory in December 1880, the workers – many of whom were children – had little time to escape. John H. Grandits looks at the Birge fire as an example of the dangers of child labor.