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The Thousand Islands' very name conjures up images of great natural beauty and nautical wonders. They are forested islands replete with storybook stone castles. Exquisite mahogany runabouts can be seen speeding across the placid surface of the mighty St. Lawrence. Names like Boldt, Bourne, Emery, Lyon, and Pullman are embedded in the Golden Age of the area, and it all comes to life in this pictorial history of the river. Images of America: Wooden Boats of the St. Lawrence River tells the story of the rich and powerful men who constructed castles and built classic wooden boats in the Thousand Islands. At the center of the story loom David and Charlie Lyon.

For 175 years, passenger ships have crossed the Atlantic, linking the Old World with the New World. Between 1892 and 1954, more than 12 million immigrants passed through the port of New York. National rivalries caused ships to grow in size, speed, and a comfort that had once been unimaginable. The advent of the passenger jet in 1958 changed how people travel. New York's harbor is now quieter, and there are no longer days with six liners ready to sail to fabled European ports. Happily, one can still sail to Europe, cruise the Caribbean, or take a world cruise from Manhattan aboard a new generation of liners like the Queen Mary 2. New York's Liners captures iconic images of the great ships from the 1890s to the present day.

The history of Port Jefferson, a village on Long Island's North Shore, is rich with the lore of ships and the sea. Once called Drowned Meadow because of flooding at high tide, the town was renamed Port Jefferson in 1836. Those same harbor waters, which overran their banks, would become the natural resource that made Port Jefferson's first industry--shipbuilding--possible. By the mid-19th century, the village had become one of the principal shipbuilding centers on Long Island and a major port of entry. The names of many prominent shipbuilding families are preserved in the village's streets and institutions, including Mather, Jones, Bayles, and Hawkins. When the shipbuilding industry declined in the late 1800s, Port Jefferson used its seaside location to reinvent itself as a recreation destination, attracting notables such as Franklin Roosevelt. The community's heritage is evidenced today in the numerous well-kept historic homes and buildings that stand along the hilly, tree-lined streets overlooking the harbor.