GUEST: This trunk I received as a gift from my mom, and it belonged to my great-uncle Bobby Leach. He was born in 1858, and I know he worked for Barnum and Bailey. He was a stuntman. And in 1911, he went over the Falls in a barrel. He was the first man over the Falls in a barrel.
APPRAISER: Which falls?
GUEST: Niagara Falls.
APPRAISER: Of course.
GUEST: Niagara Falls. And after recovering from his injuries for about six months in the hospital, he took his barrel and traveled the world, telling stories of his barrel and the Falls, and I know he returned to Niagara Falls to try to swim the whirlpool. After several attempts, he had to be rescued, and that was it for the Falls. But after several years, he was in New Zealand with the barrel telling stories. And after the event, he was walking back to his home, and slipped on an orange peel, broke his leg, got gangrene, and died.
APPRAISER: Wow.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: So, a pretty ironic story for someone who was such a daredevil. When were you gifted the trunk?
GUEST: I was gifted this about four or five years ago.
APPRAISER: So when was he born?
GUEST: 1858.
APPRAISER: Got it. So in 1911, he would have been 53.
GUEST: 53 years old, yes.
APPRAISER: Wow, so...
GUEST: Not a young man.
APPRAISER: Right.
GUEST: And he swam the-- he tried to swim the whirlpool at 60.
APPRAISER: Now, do you know the extent of his injuries after he went over the Falls?
GUEST: I know he broke both his kneecaps, his jaw, and I'm sure several other injuries, but took six months to recover.
APPRAISER: So after the recovery, basically, he went on tour.
GUEST: On tour, yes.
APPRAISER: And we can see here on, on the trunk, which is really just a generic steamer trunk.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: Baseboard and metal mounts, that he had painted kind of as a showpiece as he would tour.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: So, we've got "Scranton, Manager," so that would have been his manager.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And then, "Presents, Over Niagara Falls, Bobby Leach, in a barrel."
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And, technically, it really wasn't a barrel. It was kind of like a capsule.
GUEST: That's right.
APPRAISER: The capsule itself is actually more like a steel chamber with a window on it. Tell me about what's going on in the, in the picture.
GUEST: Well, as you can see, my great-uncle Bobby Leach there, and he's on the fence rail, I'm sure, doing a little showboating and telling the people that he's going to go over. And maybe they don't believe him until he actually starts traveling down the Falls. That's him in a bathing suit getting prepared to make his dive.
APPRAISER: Right, and what's interesting about that is, because the cabinet card is dated 1910, but the actual capsule fall was in 1911.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: If you look closely at the photo, it's a half-tone screen, which means it was, it was actually taken from a newspaper. So it might have been part of a press photo that was used to promote him. And later, after he became this big deal from the fall, these got distributed as souvenirs.
GUEST: Right.
APPRAISER: And then we have a little gold medal. We can see Bobby Leach named in the front, and there is, like, an engraved image of him going over the Falls, right?
GUEST: Right, yes.
APPRAISER: And it has a date of 1911.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And on the back, it's wonderfully engraved. It says, "Presented by the citizens of Niagara Falls, Canada, for pluck and grit." Who gets a medal for "pluck and grit" anymore?
GUEST: (chuckles)
APPRAISER: So we don't have the capsule. I think a lot of the original capsules exist in a museum in Ontario, where many of the ones throughout the century are on display.
GUEST: Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER: But what you do have is a group that tells a story. And as much as Bobby Leach is remembered for first man over the Falls, he's remembered for his ironic end, right?
GUEST: That's right, yes.
APPRAISER: And that's kind of why people are kind of drawn to that. “Oh, my God, here is this man who challenged everything, but yet he had this kind of very sad and kind of tragic ending.”
GUEST: That's right, yes.
APPRAISER: I would put an auction estimate on this at $8,000 to $10,000.
GUEST: Oh, boy, wow. I never expected that.
APPRAISER: It's just a great group.
GUEST: It's fun to have in your house to tell the story, also, yeah.
APPRAISER: (laughs) You're the only guy on your block with one of these.
GUEST: That's right, one of a kind.
