Life on a Canal Boat: The Journals of Theodore D. Bartley, 1861-1889

Capt. Theodore Bartley, owner of three Lake Champlain canal boats, kept a fascinating journal of his life from 1861 to 1889 on the canals and waterways of the Northeast. His travels included voyages north to Ottawa, west to Buffalo, and south to Philadelphia. His journal entries range from dramatic tales of near sinkings during gales on Lake Champlain to descriptions of the lives of ordinary people during the late 19th century. Bartley witnessed history in the making, and his journals provide an intimate portrait of the life of a canal boat family crisscrossing America during a period of extraordinary change.