Writing within the conventions of the European sublime was often problematic for 19th‐century travel writers who discovered that Niagara had no Old World precedent. I am concerned here with the development of the Falls' treatment in the 19th century when they first became widely written upon, painted, and commercially exploited after the 1825 completion of the Erie Canal. In what follows, I explore the importance of various ‘points of view,’ a term often used by Henry James as a device to describe a perspective both visual and thematic. These points of view will take in subjects that include silence, guidebook empiricism, guidebook Romanticism, nationalism, irreverence and an artistic acceptance of the Falls as a tourist destination.