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Saul Davis ambrotype of Niagara Falls tourists
Visual Materials
Represented in this photograph, seated atop a landau carriage pulled by two horses is a Black coachman dressed in a white servant's jacket, commonly worn by staff during this period. Freedmen frequently found employment in the Niagara Falls hospitality industry working as waiters, ferrymen, and tour guides. Niagara Falls became a settling point for many Black refugees escaping slavery and Jim Crow laws utilizing the routes of the Underground Railroad between 1796-1949. However, visiting tourists to Niagara were also known to have brought their own servants. Also depicted in the image are four Anglo men dressed in dark suits with top hats, three of which are seated in the carriage. The fourth Anglo figure is standing in front of the carriage holding his hat in his right hand below his waist. The group of men are positioned facing Table Rock or the Front with the Horseshoe Falls captured behind them. The ambrotype is credited to Saul Davis, the owner of Table Rock House and the staircase that led tourist groups "Behind the Sheet." A small label adhered to the glass notes in pencil, "S Davis Photographer Table Rock (indecipherable) Falls." The ambrotype was originally in a case but has since lost the front cover.
photPF 26047