Vintage Book — Modern Antiquities: Comprising Sketches of Early Buffalo and the Great Lakes | Sketches of Alaska (1898)

This public domain work, originally published in 1898 by Barton Atkins (1826 – ?), paints a fascinating picture of the history of Buffalo, NY between 1790 and the turn of the 20th century. Captain Atkins served on various ships on the Great Lakes between 1842 and 1876.

Those familiar with modern-day Buffalo will recognize many of the names mentioned as they are now memorialized on street signs and buildings throughout the city.

Atkins also describes his stint as President Grover Cleveland’s appointee as Marshal of the District of Alaska from 1885 to 1889.

A painstaking effort was made to meticulously convert page scans of the original publication into text. It was then set using Adobe InDesign and Adobe Photoshop into a clean, easy-to-read paperback book.

The book contains several passages considered to be racially insensitive.