Annie Edson Taylor

Harry · Post by **Harry** » Sat Sep 01, 2007 7:52 pm

Who is she you ask?

The year is 1901 and she is the first person to ever go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive. Note, not the first woman but the first person.

http://www.nfpl.library.on.ca/stuntuplo ... aylor.html

The above site says she was 46 years old at the time but she was actually an astonishing 63. See also this site:

http://panam1901.bfn.org/documents/pana ... taylor.htm

Follow the links at the bottom of this site and read about the Pan American Exposition held in Buffalo, NY in 1901. Since Lizzie attended the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893 maybe she went to Buffalo in 1901 as well.

Kat · Post by **Kat** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 4:44 pm

That's neat stuff, Har!
The Pan exhibition links are cool.
I was reading about the *runaway boys* of ages 11 & 12, who were headed for the place, in the links you suggested!

Too bad the lady in the barrel did not become famous!

nbcatlover · Post by **nbcatlover** » Mon Sep 03, 2007 12:07 pm

The photo of Annie, her barrel, and her feline friend made me laugh.

You can bet that cat wouldn't get near that barrel if it knew about "Niagara Falls." My cats are paranoid about the presence of a bathtub in the bathroom (though the stinkers like toilet with the lid up...).

augusta · Post by **augusta** » Sun Sep 30, 2007 2:12 pm

I've been to Niagara Falls (to it; not over it) several times. There is - or was - a Niagara Falls museum. It should have had an exhibit about her there, but I can't swear that a man got credit for being the first to go over.

The last time I was there, they had this attraction - one of those rides where the seat moves and the subject seems real. They had theirs on Niagara Falls, and I read in the brochure that it makes you feel that you went over the falls. (I did not go in.)

The Niagara Falls Museum was real good. When they were - I think closing it, they found that one of the mummies on display there was really a famous one they had been looking for. Nephretite? (I am not a mummy major.)

There was a fantastic Houdini museum right on the strip (Canadian side). It had a lot of his stuff in there. It burned and that was the end of that. Some woman in CA owned a lot of the stuff, I heard. David Copperfield bought several pieces. I don't know how much stuff, if any, was destroyed in the fire.