Maria Blair at No Illusions Tours

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Maria Blair at No Illusions Tours

No Illusions Tours seeks to cast a light on the true story of the city of Buffalo, NY. Our purpose is to build this city up by breaking it down.
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05/11/2024

Many have fought for your right to vote over decades and centuries. They’ve dedicated all of their talents to it, even right here in Buffalo.
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Pictured here, the work of our tour star and quintessential Art Nouveau poster work artist, Evelyn Rumsey Cary’s “Give Her the Fruit”, 1905
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01/11/2024

⚡️⭐️ Last tours of the season! Great way to end year six!! ⭐️⚡️

29/10/2024

Everybody loves this quick stop on our Buffalo Anomalies tours! This tree gets so many hugs!
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“The Oldest Tree” might technically be ten years younger than an oak in Delaware Park, but this Sycamore is incredibly anomalous. It’s growing in the oldest part of the city and has withstood so much change! Both trees are about 300 years old. That’s about a hundred years before Buffalo was incorporated!
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23/10/2024

One weekend down… one to go for this year’s Buffalo Anomalies tours. This weekend’s tours are sold out aside from Saturday’s 7pm tour. Link in the bio for last minute tickets!

09/10/2024

If you haven’t gotten your tickets yet… now’s the time. The Buffalo Anomalies tours are filling up fast!
Take a step back in time to hear all the strange and unusual stories of Buffalo’s past.

29/09/2024

What a great last couple of collabs with for the season. It’s always so rewarding to work with others who are so dedicated to telling Buffalo’s stories. It was also wonderful to participate in a tour today with author of Against the Grain, Timothy Bohen. This book has been a great secondary source for some of my research. Thank you to all who came out! I’m had so much fun in the Old First Ward today, a part of Buffalo that I also have personal history in.

28/09/2024

Today we had a book club and some visitors from California on a Buffalo Lit tour. Thanks for joining to hear the stories of prominent authors that lived and worked in Buffalo. ☺️

26/09/2024

One of the most fun elements of research is finding images to share on tours and oftentimes these aren’t just photographs. Recently, I was very excited to find a full image version of the dying confession of the Thayer Brothers, who were the only men publicly executed by hanging in Erie county’s history. I’d only had pieces of it before. I also came across a new illustration used for Mark Twain’s story “The Curious Dream” published in the paper he was an owner of, the Buffalo Express. I’m excited to share both along with many other elements from the past, including photos, maps, and drawings on our Buffalo Anomalies tours this year. Come hear all the strange and unusual stories of our city next month. Spots are going quick so act fast! Link in the bio!
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Both drawings are by True Williams for the Buffalo Express later printed in Mark Twain’s Sketches New and Old in 1875. I found the cemetery one for the first time in The Illustrated Mark Twain and the Buffalo Express by Thomas J Reigstad.

21/09/2024

Part of our tour group on our Buffalo’s Favorite Daughters at today was a group of women celebrating one of the friend’s baby who is due next month! Thank you for celebrating with us and congratulations!

12/09/2024

👻Celebrate Friday the 13th with No Illusions! Now through midnight Saturday save 13% on any tour… including our October only Buffalo Anomalies Series, many which have very limited space left already.👻
✨Use Code: FridayThe13th✨
🖤Link for tickets in the bio.🖤

11/09/2024

We have a few more tours this season featuring authors who lived and worked in Buffalo
📕William Wells Brown
📙F. Scott Fitzgerald
📒Marian deForest
📗Anna Katherine Green
📘Mark Twain
Link in the bio for tickets?

02/09/2024

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.
~Theodore Roosevelt

31/08/2024

We had some repeat tour guests and a family visiting from Toronto today! Thank you for joining me to learn about Buffalo’s authors!

28/08/2024

Thanks again for having me to speak, Buffalo Army Corps of Engineers! I was very happy to share the stories of some of the phenomenal women in Buffalo’s history, especially in recognition of Women’s Equality Day. 💛🤍💜

26/08/2024

One of the most direct ways that a woman from our tours contributed to the Women’s Suffrage Movement is certainly Evelyn Rumsey Cary’s piece “Give Her the Fruit”. It was widely used to promote women being granted universal suffrage in the United States. It evokes the concept that women are contributing to this nation, but are not fully reaping the benefits of those contributions, namely the right to vote. It’s a stunning and incredibly influential piece and I’m so proud that it is the work of one of our Badass Buffalo Babes. Pictured here on the right side are an example at the Women’s Rights National Historic Park in Seneca Falls (top) and an original in the Buffalo History Museum (bottom).

24/08/2024

Thank you to all who came out for our second Women of the Pan Am tour with !!
I always enjoy telling the stories of Badass Buffalo Babes in those beautiful setting.

23/08/2024

Our last collab of the season with !
I’m very excited to announce one more Buffalo’s Favorite Daughters tour on September 21st at 11am
✨Tickets Available now on our website. Link in the bio.✨
This one sold out quickly in May and we had many asking about the next one. If interested act quickly!

17/08/2024

Last year was the first time that I included the Statler in a Buffalo Anomalies tour. In fact I created a new shorter tour around it, Buffalo Anomalies Abridged, which also includes three existing stops. It’s perfect if you’re interested in less walking while still hearing four very strange and unusual Buffalo stories.
Researching the Statler for this new tour was so interesting. E.M. Statler was such an innovator and he came from the humblest of beginnings. His hotels were/ are stunning, sophisticated and modern, yet his chief concern was affordability and ensuring every guest and employee was treated fairly.
And the stories his crown jewel, our Statler can tell are phenomenal… and sometimes tragic and uncanny… so if you’re interested in a spooky tour that has some history behind it join us for this new shorter Buffalo Anomalies tour, which includes what is fast becoming one of my favorite places to talk about the Statler!
Tickets on sale now. Link in bio.
October 19th, 20th, 26th, 27th, & 31st.

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+17168707698

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http://www.noillusionstoursbuffalo.com/

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Our Story

Buffalo is my home. It is my passion. I've lived in and around Buffalo all my life and every day I learn something new about this city.

Since I was young I've valued stories and the way that people are connected through the craft of telling them. I believe that you can learn a great deal about a person or a place by the stories that they choose to tell. For a long time the stories people have told about Buffalo were of a dying rust belt city with nothing left to give the world.

But Buffalo is much more than snow, decay and loss. And in recent years more and more people are showcasing the old and creating new, strong and beautiful stories about Buffalo. Our goal, at No Illusions Tours is to add to those new stories by breaking down the history of Buffalo itself. We seek to tell our city’s story through different voices from the past, from the Burning of Buffalo more than 200 years ago to new art and innovation from the last decade.

Our very first stories at No Illusions will be told through the voices of remarkable women who have lived and worked here, who have helped Buffalo and in many cases the rest of the world to grow, as they grew. This series of tours, Buffalo's Favorite Daughters, will be our very first look at Buffalo's Story.