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Through vintage postcards, The Rockaways captures the history and charm of this seaside community.

The Rockaway Peninsula, also known as the Rockaways, is located off Long Island, within the borough of Queens. Its remoteness from Manhattan has made it a popular retreat and has provided an out-of-the-way area for families looking to relocate and live by the sea. The Rockaway's became a popular area for seaside hotels beginning in the 1830s, and its popularity grew with the coming of the Long Island Rail Road in the 1880s. In 1893, Hog Island, a resort known for entertaining Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall, sank into the sea. Located a few miles east of Breezy Point, and also known as Rockaway Island, the entire island disappeared during a storm. The Rockaways was also the home of Rockaway's Playland, a world renowned amusement park from 1901 to 1985. Through vintage postcards, The Rockaways captures the history and charm of this seaside community.

The world's most famous sculpture, the Statue of Liberty, Liberty Enlightening the World, rises to a height of 305 feet from the base of her pedestal to the top of the golden flame of her torch. Conceived, designed, and originally built in France, she was unveiled on her new island home in 1886. The postcard trade, still in its infancy, embraced the icon, and Miss Liberty's commanding figure soon appeared on millions of postcards. In this book, one will see the statue from many angles--profiles, long shots, close-ups, aerials, torch views, and more.

The Thousand Islands are more than 1,800 islands located in 35 miles of the upper St. Lawrence River between Upstate New York and southeastern Ontario.

During the latter half of the 19th century, the region evolved as a vacation destination, initially for Canadian and American urbanites drawn by the restorative powers of spectacular scenery and relaxed summer life. Tourism expanded rapidly, and by the early 1900s, the Thousand Islands boasted dozens of grand hotels, daily railroad connections to New York and Philadelphia, steamship service to Montreal and Toronto, innumerable sightseeing and guided fishing excursions, and the best that North America's premier vacation spot could offer.

See how the Upper West Side of Manhattan became a neighborhood as diverse in its population as it is in its architecture.

The Upper West Side of Manhattan, the residential and retail neighborhood between Central Park and the Hudson River, is famous for its liberalism, cosmopolitan culture, and appetizing. It is a neighborhood as diverse as there is. Known as Bloomingdale in the mid-19th century, it was renamed the West End by the century's end when real estate speculation and mass transportation made their way inevitably northward in Manhattan. It was at this time that the grand boulevards and avenues Central Park West, Broadway, Columbus Avenue, Amsterdam Avenue, West End Avenue, and Riverside Drive each quickly assumed their impressive and distinct characters.

Times Square, celebrated as the crossroads of the world, begins at 42nd Street, America''s main stem. Times Square has a rich history as the center of American popular culture, embracing music, theater, and hospitality. Forty-second Street, once the northern boundary of commercial New York, was transformed into a legendary focal point of the publishing, entertainment, and transportation industries following the expansion of Grand Central Terminal.

Troy is situated on the banks of the Hudson River, just ten miles from the state capital of Albany. Well known as the Collar City, it is the home of Uncle Sam and of the largest annual Flag Day parade. It is less well known as being the home of two National Baseball Hall of Famers, Johnny "the Trojan" Evers and Michael "King" Kelly. In its prime, Troy had more than sixty churches, fifteen breweries, and at least a dozen theaters. Troy in Vintage Postcards reveals through the postcard photographer's eyes what the city was like from the early to the mid-1900s, with a few added surprises from the late 1800s. It shows not only how much of Troy has changed but also how much has remained the same.

Wappinger's name is derived from the Native American Wappani tribe that once lived along the eastern shore of the Hudson River. The era between 1870 and 1930 was the town's golden age, when Dutchess Bleach Works was at its height of operation and Sweet Orr and Factory sold denim overalls across the country. While the village of Wappingers Falls was the center of economic and community life, the rest of the town was rural by comparison. Farmland dominated the landscape to the east of the village, and small river hamlets dotted the Hudson to the west. Although the farmland and factories are gone and the river traffic has slowed, remnants of Wappinger's past are still visible.

Established in 1806, the town of Wawarsing is located in the beautiful Shawangunk Mountains in Ulster County. The town is comprised of many small hamlets, as well as the village of Ellenville. The abundance of mountain streams provided electricity to run factories, and in the early 1900s, these communities were flourishing. The Delaware and Hudson Canal opened in 1828 and provided a venue for factories to transport goods. Following the close of the canal in 1898, the Ontario and Western Railroad took over, shuttling summer vacationers from New York City. The vintage postcards in Wawarsing provide views of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, the Ontario and Western Railroad, and a glimpse back to a quieter time when the mountain and valley landscape provided picturesque locations for lovely hotels and boardinghouses.

West Point presents a unique visual history of an essential American institution. Built directly into the granite above the Hudson River, West Point began its military history during the Revolutionary War and continues today, preparing officers for the U.S. Army. The cadets appointed to the U.S. Military Academy march on hallowed ground, privileged to take their place in "the Long Gray Line," among America's best and brightest.

Yorktown is one of the northernmost towns in Westchester County. This volume of vintage postcards draws from a time when the railroad was a predominant fixture in the community and travelers flocked to summer hotels and lakeside bungalow colonies. Often thought of as ephemera, something to be used and thrown away, postcard images have proven over time to be a valuable document of a time and place. For those who were visitors and those who received postcards, these striking images capture the past in terms of Yorktown's architecture, entertainment, commerce, and community.