 The Niagara shape was introduced by Homer Laughlin in 1910. It appeared in the May 1, 1910 catalog along with The Angelus and Hudson. It was during this time the older shapes, American Beauty, Colonial, and Seneca, had been discontinued.
Niagara was made with a slightly scalloped rim with an light incised line just inside the edge of the flatware. The hollowware was rather plain in comparison to the ornate shapes of the day. The same faint, embossed ring can be found towards the bottoms of the hollowware.
The Genesee shape was created almost immediately after Niagara. Both shapes are very similar, but there are several noticeable differences. While Niagara had a scalloped edge, Genesee's was round and smooth. Also, Genesee wasn't made with Niagara's embossed ring around the edge of flatware and bottoms of hollowware. When Genesee was released in 1911, both shapes shared treatments. Both shapes were almost always marked with the shape name included in the backstamp. Shown to the right is a typical Niagara marking.
In the 1910 price scale catalogs, there were seventy treatments offered on Niagara. In 1911, that number was cut more than half to 33. Finally, in 1912, Niagara was no longer available. This makes Niagara one of HLC's shortest-lived shapes. The Genesee shape continued for roughly six more years until it was phased out in favor of Empress and Republic.
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