Buffalo: Queen City of the Lakes (nickname)

The city of Buffalo, New York, is located on the eastern shores of Lake Erie (one of the Great Lakes). Buffalo was called the “Queen of the Lakes” in 1828 and the “Queen City of the Lakes” in 1836. This is sometimes shortened to “Queen City,” although several cities also have that name.

Wikipedia: Buffalo, New York
Buffalo (/ˈbʌfəloʊ/) is a city in Western New York and the seat of Erie County, located on the eastern shores of Lake Erie at the head of the Niagara River. As of 2014, Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state after New York City with 258,703 residents, and the metropolitan area is the 53rd largest in the United States.

Buffalo experienced significant growth in the 19th and 20th centuries as a direct result of the Erie Canal, railroads and Lake Erie, providing an abundance of fresh water and an ample trade route to the Midwestern United States, while grooming its economy for the grain, steel and automobile industries during the 20th century. Since experiencing an economic downturn in the latter half of the 20th century, Buffalo’s economy has transitioned to sectors that include financial services, technology, biomedical and education.

Residents of Buffalo are called “Buffalonians”. Nicknames for the city of Buffalo include “The Queen City”, “The Nickel City”, “The City of Good Neighbors”, and less commonly, the “City of Light”.

Newspapers.com
3 July 1828, Buffalo (NY) Emporium, pg. 4, col. 2:
But Buffalo is the favorite of nature—the queen of the lakes, and destined to be the greatest inland city in the western world.
(From the Albany Times.—ed.)

31 July 1835, American Traveller (Boston, MA), pg. 1, col. 6:
Progress of the Press.—We have received the first number of a penny daily just commenced at Buffalo, under the title of the ‘Buffalo Transcript.’ It promises well, and we see no reason why the ‘queen of the lakes’ should not have their little diurnals too, as well as the capital of Gotham.

19 November 1835, New-York (NY) Spectator, “Governor Clinton’s Opinion of Buffalo,” pg. 2, col. 7:
“Buffalo is the favorite of nature—the queen of the lakes, and destined to be the greatest inland city in the world.”

Newspapers.com
17 May 1836, Daily Commercial Advertiser (Buffalo, NY), pg. 2, col. 3:
By B. W. Jenks—The enterprising sons of the glorious “Queen City of the Lakes,” ...

17 June 1836, Daily Cleveland Herald (Cleveland, OH), pg. 2, col. 1:
I=Our merchants, this spring, have suffered much inconvenience from the detention of their goods at Buffalo, and elsewhere, on the route between this place and New York. We do not know that the forwarding houses in the Queen City of the Lakes, are, however, to blame for this.

3 July 1837, The Evening Star (New York, NY), pg. 2, col. 5:
Our police reporters at the Queen city of the Lakes do up their work in a style quite equal to ours. Thus:

Reported for the Daily Commercial Advertiser.
BUFFALO POLICE.

3 August 1837, Boston (MA) Weekly Advertiser, pg. 4, col. 4:
From the Buffalo Journal.
RECEPTION OF MR. WEBSTER.
(...)
Mr. W. also expressed the pleasure which it gave him to find this important and rising city rapidly advancing in prosperity, and bidding so fairly to crown the fondest hopes of its friends—that it was in reality destined to become the proud “Queen city of the West.”

8 May 1838, Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel, “Enlargement of the Erie Canal,” pg. 2, col. 5:
To Buffalo the passage of this bill is the commencement of a new era in her prosperity, second only to that which determined the original construction of the great work itself.—It places securely on her brow the diadem of the Queen City of the Lakes.

OCLC WorldCat record
The queen of the lakes : a complete business directory for Buffalo, giving a splendid description of the most celebrated establishments in that city, together with illustrations of its most eminent personages
Author: James Torrington Spencer Lidstone
Publisher: Buffalo [N.Y.] : [publisher not identified], 1852.
Series: Genealogy & local history, LH2872.
Edition/Format: Book Microform : Microfiche : Master microform : English

9 April 1866, Cleveland (OH) Daily Plain Dealer, “Geographical Nicknames,” pg. 2, col. 5:
Nicknames of some cities and towns:
(...)
Buffalo, Queen of the Lakes; ...

Google Books
Dictionary of Americanisms (Fourth Edition)
By John Russell Bartlett
Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Company
1877
Pg. 812:
Buffalo…Queen City of the Lakes

OCLC WorldCat record
The Queen City Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children : incorporated under Chapter 340 of the laws of 1879.
Author: Queen City Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (Buffalo, N.Y.)
Publisher: Buffalo : Young, Lockwood & Co’s Steam Press, 1881.
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
The phenomenal growth of Buffalo : a treatise showing what the builders and contractors and auxiliary trades of Buffalo accomplished during 1884 towards developing the Queen city of the lakes ...
Author: William Cox Paul
Publisher: Buffalo : W.C. Paul, 1884.
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
The industries of Buffalo : a résumé of the mercantile and manufacturing progress of the Queen City of the Lakes, together with a condensed summary of her material development and history and a series of comprehensive sketches of her representative business houses.
Author: Elstner Publishing Company (Rochester, N.Y.)
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. : Elstner Pub. Co., 1887
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Illustrated Buffalo : the Queen City of the lakes. Its past, present and future. Its growth, its resources, its commerce, its manufactures, its financial interests, its public institutions, and its prospects.
Author: George Milroy Bailey
Publisher: New York : Acme Pub. and Engraving Co., ©1890.
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Queen of the lakes, Buffalo, the electric city of the future. Souvenir of the tenth convention of the National Association of Builders. September 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19, 1896.
Author: Builders’ Association Exchange of Buffalo.; National Association of Builders (U.S.)
Publisher: [Buffalo], [Courier Co., Printers], [1896]
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
A souvenir of Buffalo : the “Queen city of the lakes”
Publisher: Buffalo : Matthews-Northrup Co., 1898.
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Ins and outs of Buffalo : the queen city of the lakes, a thoroughly authentic and profusely illustrated guide.
Publisher: Buffalo [N.Y.] : A.B. Floyd, 1899.
Series: Genealogy & local history, LH2867.
Edition/Format: Book Microform : Microfiche : Master microform : English

OCLC WorldCat record
Buffalo, old and new : a chronological history of the queen city of the lakes, its government and public institutions, its manufacturing, commercial and financial industries
Author: Otis H Williams
Publisher: [Buffalo] : Buffalo Courier, 1901.
Edition/Format: Print book : English

OCLC WorldCat record
The cradle of the Queen city, a history of Buffalo to the incorporation of the city,
Author: Robert W Bingham
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y., Buffalo Historical Society, 1931.
Series: Publications of the Buffalo Historical Society, v. 31.
Edition/Format: Print book : English

Newspapers.com
5 December 1944, Buffalo (NY) Evening News, pg. 8, col. 1 ad:
What do you know?
The city of Buffalo has had five nicknames. It has been referred to as the Bison City, the City of Flour, the Electric City of the Future, the Queen of the Lakes, and the Queen City of the Lakes.
(...)
Beck’s
BUFFALO’S BEST
BEER
MAGNUS BECK BREWING CO. Inc., Buffalo, N. Y.

OCLC WorldCat record
Queen City Comics.
Publisher: Buffalo, N.Y. : Queen City Bookstore, 1978-
Edition/Format: Journal, magazine : Periodical : English

OCLC WorldCat record
The Queen City hub : a regional action plan for downtown Buffalo
Author: Robert G Shibley; Bradshaw Hovey; Buffalo (N.Y.); Buffalo Place Inc.; State University of New York at Buffalo. Urban Design Project.
Publisher: Buffalo, NY : City of Buffalo, 2003.
Edition/Format: Print book : Local government publication : English

Buffalo (NY) News
16 August 2009, Buffalo (NY) News, “Who are we?: Queen City, Flour City, Nickel City ... what’s with all the nicknames for Buffalo?” by Anne Neville, pg. F1:
*“Queen City of the Lakes.” Cynthia Van Ness, director of library and archives at the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, found this regal sobriquet in print in the 1842 Buffalo City Directory, published by Horatio N. Walker, who called his directory “an indispensable index to the rise and progress of our QUEEN CITY OF THE LAKES.”

So wear that crown proudly, Buffalo! In his 1951 pamphlet, “Nicknames of American Cities, Towns and Villages, Past & Present,” Gerard L. Alexander writes, “Consider that with respect to ‘The Queen City of the Lakes,’ (i.e., The Great Lakes) there are five or six populous, handsome, century-or-more-old cities on the shores of these five noble fresh water inland seas: could not the possessor of the proud title as justly be Chicago or Duluth or Toledo or Cleveland or Milwaukee or Toronto?” Yet it is Buffalo that has the name, along with one variation, “The Queen of the Lakes.”

OCLC WorldCat record
Quotable Buffalo : the most marvelous and maddening things ever said about the Queen City
Author: Cynthia Van Ness
Publisher: Buffalo, NY : Western New York Wares, Inc., ©2011.
Edition/Format: Print book : English