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.

Two of our Buffalo’s Favorite Daughters tours feature the incomparable Cornell Mansion on Delaware Ave. My favorite part...
12/01/2025

Two of our Buffalo’s Favorite Daughters tours feature the incomparable Cornell Mansion on Delaware Ave. My favorite part about it, aside from the original owner’s very purposeful design for the fourth floor’s fully functional stage is the fact that it was beautifully restored in the 1990s to look so very much like its then century year old original design. Here we discuss the first owner‘s granddaughter Katherine Cornell, who grew up here in Buffalo and is often referred to as a first lady of American Theatre. Learn about her illustrious career this season. Tickets are on sale starting in March.

We’ve  just confirmed that we’ll be working with  again this year to bring you our Women of the Pan Am and Buffalo’s Fav...
11/01/2025

We’ve just confirmed that we’ll be working with again this year to bring you our Women of the Pan Am and Buffalo’s Favorite Daughters at Forest Lawn tours! If you missed them last year, look out for tickets going on sale this March. There will also be a few changes so even if you joined us for one of these tours already, there may be some new information for you to learn this year! Dates are coming soon, but they will be throughout the entire season!
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Marian deForest is featured on both tours. She was quite the accomplished woman. She was one of Buffalo’s first female journalists, a celebrated playwright, the founder of a now International women’s service group with tens of thousands of members. Her home with partner, Mai Davis Smith was a salon for visiting artists and thinkers to discuss philosophy and life and she was involved in major Buffalo civic institutions from the history museum and library to the SPCA and countless groups promoting music in the city. But Marian also fought for female representation at the Pan American Exposition as the Secretary of the Board of Women Managers for the fair.
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Marian is also featured on our Buffalo’s Favorite Daughters full tour as well as our Buffalo Lit tour held throughout the season.
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Thanks for another year of living my dreams… so excited for all the tours and events that 2025 will bring! I’m ready to ...
31/12/2024

Thanks for another year of living my dreams… so excited for all the tours and events that 2025 will bring! I’m ready to meet new people from right here in Buffalo and those from nearby and from far away. I’m looking forward to telling old stories in new ways and sharing new pieces of Buffalo’s past. I can’t wait for all the collabs and all the moments we’ll share celebrating Buffalo’s story together! Cheers 🥂 to 2024 and a new year with No Illusions! ✨ 2025, I’m ready!

🎄Merry Christmas!🎄✨Happy Hanukkah!✨
25/12/2024

🎄Merry Christmas!🎄✨Happy Hanukkah!✨

✨Day 12 of the 22 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨today you can hear about Ann Montgomery and the Little Harlem Hotel in...
24/12/2024

✨Day 12 of the 22 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
today you can hear about Ann Montgomery and the Little Harlem Hotel in our stories .
Photo courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum

✨Day 11 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨in today’s stories, learn about Mark Twain’s time here in Buffalo.
24/12/2024

✨Day 11 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
in today’s stories, learn about Mark Twain’s time here in Buffalo.

✨Day 10 of 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨In today’s stories you can learn about journalist and playwright MarianDeF...
23/12/2024

✨Day 10 of 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
In today’s stories you can learn about journalist and playwright MarianDeForest .

✨Day 9 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨Today you’ll hear another darker story of Buffalo’s past, but this one ...
21/12/2024

✨Day 9 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
Today you’ll hear another darker story of Buffalo’s past, but this one at least has some elements of a Christmas tradition of telling ghost stories around the Yuletide season with since it does end in one.

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21/12/2024

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✨Day 8 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨in today’s stories hear about the Buffalo childhood of F. Scott Fitzger...
20/12/2024

✨Day 8 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
in today’s stories hear about the Buffalo childhood of F. Scott Fitzgerald.

✨Day 7 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨in our stories today, learn about First Lady of American Theatre, Kathe...
20/12/2024

✨Day 7 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
in our stories today, learn about First Lady of American Theatre, Katherine Cornell.

✨Day 6 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨Today in our stories, you can learn about the first professional female...
19/12/2024

✨Day 6 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
Today in our stories, you can learn about the first professional female architect in the United States Louise Blanchard Bethune.

✨Day 5 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨see today’s stories to learn about William Wells Brown’s remarkable wri...
18/12/2024

✨Day 5 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
see today’s stories to learn about William Wells Brown’s remarkable writing career and his escape from enslavement.

✨Day 4 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨Sadly, not all stories in Buffalo history are positive so our tour star...
17/12/2024

✨Day 4 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
Sadly, not all stories in Buffalo history are positive so our tour stars today are the first man to die in the electric chair, William Kemmler, and his victim Tillie Zeigler

✨Day 3 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨See our stories to learn about activist who was l overall an incredibly...
15/12/2024

✨Day 3 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
See our stories to learn about activist who was l overall an incredibly accomplished, woman, Mary Burnett Talbert.
Picture courtesy of the Buffalo History Museum archives.

✨Day 2 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨in today’s stories, you can learn more about Ida Dora Fairbush buffaloe...
15/12/2024

✨Day 2 of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨
in today’s stories, you can learn more about Ida Dora Fairbush buffaloes first teacher of color.

⭐️✨12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨⭐️For the first day of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour stars, we have a star who ...
13/12/2024

⭐️✨12 Days of No Illusions Tour Stars✨⭐️
For the first day of the 12 Days of No Illusions Tour stars, we have a star who is on both our Buffalo’s Favorite Daughters Full Tour as well as our Buffalo Lit Tour. To learn more about Anna Katherine Green and her prolific writing career see today’s stories!

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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.