Vanishing Past

Vanishing Past is a local-history writing and publishing venture founded by James “Jim” Boles, a Western New York native and retired health and human services executive. Through its blog, lectures, and publications, the brand explores the region’s overlooked stories, with particular attention to early social services, health care, alternative healing, institutions, and people’s relationships with the past. Boles’s research combines fieldwork, visits to historical sites, conversations with people connected to events, and collaboration with local historians. Vanishing Past Press aims to encourage, develop, publish, and market scholarship and culturally significant works focused on under-examined history.

Its books include No Harm Was Done: Alternative Medicine in Lockport, New York, based on articles and lectures about nontraditional health practices in Western New York, and Stories From the Springs: The Niagara Frontier, which investigates historic springs and their regional stories. The site also features articles on local buildings, health care, historical sites, and community heritage. Boles founded Buffalo’s Museum of disAbility History and has received a historic preservation award for his museum work.