Erie

Images of America: Pennsylvania

by Jeffrey R. Nelson

Nestled on the south shore of Lake Erie is the bustling city of Erie, Pennsylvania. The inhabitants share a community history spanning nearly three centuries and four nations. Erie was originally home to the Native American Erie Nation. Subsequently, French, English, and American military units have been posted at Presque Isle. The city’s diverse heritage comes to life in this delightful pictorial history, as photography lends image to experience. The marvelous photographs offer a distinctly unique view of the working, merchant, and upper classes within the city. The archives of the Erie Historical Museum and Planetarium, the Firefighters Historical Museum, and several private collections provide the basis for this visual history spanning from the 1860s to the 1940s. The harbor of Erie and Presque Isle was a land of opportunity for immigrants in the nineteenth century and this book captures their triumphant survival in the New World. It also chronicles life through World War I, the Roaring Twenties, and the Great Depression.

128 pages, Paperback

First published June 28, 1998

Reviews

[Kathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in my dad’s collection, stuffed in the magazine rack next to his chair. Mostly, the rack’s books and magazines were about baseball and golf, two of his greatest passions.

These Images of America are ubiquitous sepia-toned little books that begin with a succinct history of the focused city or area, some pictures from the 1800s, then many photographs of its last hundred years or so.

Erie, Pennsylvania follows the pattern well.

Dad, who died this year about three months before his 100th birthday, recalled lots of the buildings in this book; he could still remember many of them, and told stories about their details. Living in one place his whole life gave him that perspective—something that most of my generation won’t know.

As I read this Images of America book, I don’t regret that I won’t have just one city of many buildings, but I’m glad that I got to live Dad’s city—Erie, Pennsylvania—not only through Jeffrey Nelson’s book, but also through Dad’s eyes during our 70-plus years together.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up in Erie, I was weirdly excited to read this and learn about some of the town's history that I maybe wasn't aware of. I didn't get a ton of that in this book, actually, but was still really pleased to see the city's various eras depicted. Nelson has a lot of passion for the city and that bleeds through into his careful naming of the photograph's subjects, even if he didn't supply as much historical context and detail as I'd have liked. As with other of these books, I wish the eras covered got a bit closer to the modern day at times, but was overall pleased with the geography and timeline shown.