A Michigan-born travel writer, Twardowski hasassembled and captioned a diverse group of images representing many pointsalong the shore of the great lake. The selection can’t be called comprehensiveand often seems serendipitous, varying greatly in subject, composition andtechnical quality. Although it would be too much to call the photographs across section of a century of developments around Lake Michigan, each pictureis an interesting historical record of the people, the machinery, the citystreets and the surrounding landscape.
Milwaukee occupies a fare share of the pages. An1868 shot of downtownevidently from a rooftopshows the distant wooded shoreof Bay View and points south on the horizon. From the same period comes ahaunting view from the end of what is now East Wells Street, terminating at acliff overlooking the lake and revealing little evidence of human occupation.Photos from late 19th century Milwaukee include tree linedresidential streets and a crowded downtown crowned by City Hall, the thirdtallest edifice in America when completed in 1895.
Twentieth century photos show how Milwaukee hasgrown within living memory of our older residents. In a late 1920s aerialpicture, Wisconsin Avenue and Lincoln Memorial Drive converge at a blank spotwhere the War Memorial would rise 40 years later.
