"Rochester is a waterborne city. The beauty and potential power of the Genesee River s Upper and Lower Falls drew co-founders Nathaniel Rochester, William Fitzhugh and Charles Carroll to this Seneca-inhabited region in the early 1800s. The two falls spurred local industrial development, while the addition of the Erie Canal in 1825 connected the nascent village to cities across the country and expanded its market, making Rochester one of America s first boom towns.Established as a city in 1834, Rochester has since reinvented itself on a number of occasions, earning a series of reputations ranging from the Flour City to the World Image Center. Mary Hasek Grenier and Emily C. Morry, PhD, both graduates of the University of Rochester, in collaboration with the Office of the City Historian, have compiled a unique visual documentation of Rochester s evolution. Rochester Through Time highlights the natural resources that shaped the city s founding, the historic figures who influenced its development and the resourceful residents who point toward the promise of its future."