Painted in 1980, this summer view of Buffalo's harbor in 1870 has been in the artist's private collection . This painting was composed using a map of the original canals and many photographs of individual grain elevators plotted onto this map to give accurate location. Then all buildings had to be drawn in scale for this perspective. None of these second generation grain elevators such as the Read, Union, Bennett, and the watson in the foreground exist today. Below the Watson a tunnel can be seen where Erie Barge Canal barges were loaded with flour. Until the 1840's , Danzig on the Baltic had been the grain capital of the world since the Middle Ages. However, from 1840 Buffalo, with its harbor and side canals lined with grain elevators, became the greatest grain milling city in the world. In the early 1800's Scandinavian immigrants came to New York City, travelled via the Erie Barge Canal to Buffalo where they booked passage on steamboats such as the Superior, or lake schooners to the mid-west. Many became thriving wheat and grain farmers who shipped their grain back to Buffalo on these same returning Great Lakes schooners. The Atlantic, shown departing the mouth of the Buffalo River, was a typical steam propeller-driven ship of the day which carried both cargo and passengers to and from Buffalo. In the background the side canals are lined with transport schooners. The dipper dredge, shown in use in the foreground, revolutionized dredging and made constant use of the harbor possible as it continually cleared deposits that previously caused sandbars to block the river mouth. Behind the dipper dredge stands the original Army Corps of Engineers building, responsible for keeping the port of Buffalo open. The lighthouse at the entrance of the harbor is the oldest structure in Buffalo and still guides ships into port today.

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