Extraordinary Photos From History Explained

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Over the Falls

Wikimedia

This is a photo of Annie Edson Taylor, an American schoolteacher who was the first person to survive a trip over Niagara Falls in a barrel. While she did so for fame and fortune, she never really garnered much of both. Hoping to become a sensation so that she would be financially taken-care of in her twilight years, Taylor used a custom-made barrel for her trip, made of oak and iron, and padded with a mattress. It was also made watertight. For a test run, she sent a cat over the Horseshoe Falls in her barrel, and it came out alive, but with a head wound. After Taylor herself made the successful journey over the falls, she briefly earned money speaking about her experience, but her fortune never amounted to much. Her manager then ran away with her barrel, and most of her savings were used towards private detectives hired to find it. It was eventually found in Chicago, only to disappear for good, some time later.