The Board of Managers and Regents of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society has announced that it has selected Wayne D. Wisbaum, and brothers Christopher T. and Finley R. Greene, as recipients of its annual Red Jacket award. Wisbaum is an an attorney and devoted public servant, as is Christopher Greene. [Read more…] about Buffalo and Erie Co. Historical Announces Awards
Western NY
Buffalo and Erie’s 12th Annual ‘Paint the Town’
The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society has announced its 12th annual Paint the Town fundraising event, which takes place this year on Thursday, September 23, from 5:30 to 9 p.m.
In an updated format, the fundraiser will feature both live and silent auctions, and include a wide range of artworks by almost 60 artists with strong ties to the Buffalo region. [Read more…] about Buffalo and Erie’s 12th Annual ‘Paint the Town’
Online: John Timon – Buffalo’s First Bishop
New York History Review has just published online John Timon – Buffalo’s First Bishop
: His Forgotten Struggle to Assimilate Catholics in Western New York
by Paul E. Lubienecki. Timon assimilated Catholics and Catholic women into the culture of western New York and established Catholicism while battling the local Protestant clergy and the Catholic hierarchy. You can read more about him here. [Read more…] about Online: John Timon – Buffalo’s First Bishop
‘Perceiving Buffalo’ Autistic Artists Exhibit
The Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society (BECHS) has announced “Perceiving Buffalo,” an exhibit of works by artists from Autistic Services, Inc. (ASI).
The show opened in BECHS’ second-floor Community Gallery on July 1st and will run through Sunday, August 22, 2010. The exhibit is open to the public, and free with regular museum admission. [Read more…] about ‘Perceiving Buffalo’ Autistic Artists Exhibit
Maritime Center Offers Family Boat Building
In collaboration with Buffalo Place the Buffalo Maritime Center is holding a Family Boat-Building workshop on the Buffalo Waterfront. [Read more…] about Maritime Center Offers Family Boat Building
Buffalo & Erie Co. Historical Names New Director
The board of managers of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society today named Melissa N. Brown, an expert in Western New York history and the Historical Society’s director of research and interpretation, its new director. [Read more…] about Buffalo & Erie Co. Historical Names New Director
Boat Museum Artifacts on Display in Geneva Storefront
Thanks to the generosity of Geneva retailer Joe Fragnoli, the Finger Lakes Boating Museum now has a museum display in place in downtown Geneva. Several artifacts along with some materials representative of the Boating Museum’s collection are now on display in the storefront windows at 430 Exchange St.
The Boating Museum and the City of Geneva reached agreement last fall on locating the Boating Museum and Visitor Center on the Geneva waterfront where the Chamber of Commerce building now stands.
Bill Oben, president of the Boating Museum, said the southern window is set up with a display of antique fishing gear of the type used in the Finger Lakes region during the first part of the last century. Central to this display is an elegant rowboat built in 1940 by noted Dresden boat builder Seymour Smith.
Smith is believed to have built more than 30 boats between 1920 and 1940. In later years he subordinated boatbuilding to his lifelong hobby of carving duck decoys, which are highly prized by collectors today. The display also includes several vintage photos related to trout fishing during that era.
The display in the northern window illustrates this year’s Boating Museum theme of “Sailing in the Finger Lakes.” In addition to a Penn Yan “Captain Kid” sailboat marketed for children in the1930s, the display contains scale models of some of the most popular one-design sailboats competitively sailed in the Finger Lakes during the past century. These include replicas of the Star, Comet, Lightning and Snipe, all built to 1/12th scale. Full-size examples of these famous sailing craft reside in the Boating Museum’s collection, and will be on display on the Seneca Lake waterfront at the annual Boat Show July 24-25 during Geneva’s Cruisin’ Weekend.
“We are grateful to Joe for lending the use of this space,” said Oben. “We plan to use it to display other artifacts and ephemera from the Boating Museum’s collection on a rotational basis while it is available to us, or until our permanent home on the lakefront is ready.”
Local Radio Rewarded For Polish Legacy Piece
Buffalo radio station WBFO (88.7) has received a regional Edward R. Murrow Award by the Radio-Television News Directors Association for a story about the Polish Legacy Project (PLP), a group of people whose aim is to capture the stories of Polish survivors of World War Two while they are still alive.
The piece aired last year just before the PLP’s Untold Stories Conference. [Read more…] about Local Radio Rewarded For Polish Legacy Piece
Buffalo Maritime Center Building War of 1812 Bateau
The Buffalo Maritime Center’s new project to build a replica War of 1812 Bateau is now underway. Work sessions on the 25-foot boat will be held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5:00 to 9:00 pm beginning February 23rd in the boat shop at 901 Fuhrmann Boulevard, Buffalo. According to organizers this will be the first bateau built in Buffalo in 200 years. [Read more…] about Buffalo Maritime Center Building War of 1812 Bateau
Finger Lakes Museum Site Selection Narrowed to Two
First there were nineteen. Then there were five. Now there are two. John Adamski, president of the Board of Trustees of the Finger Lakes Cultural & Natural History Museum, said today that the Site Selection Committee has referred two sites to the board for further assessment. They are the Geneva/Seneca Lake State Park site along the lakefront in Geneva and Keuka Lake State Park near Branchport in Yates County. Both sites offer lake frontage.
No longer in contention is the Bush Farm in Ledyard, the Wells College campus in Aurora, and Sampson State Park in Romulus. Sponsors of those sites were informed of the decision last Friday and in a show of commitment and dedication, each pledged to continue supporting the project.
Adamski said that a great deal of effort was put into proposals from the five site sponsors and that each had to be fairly evaluated. Site selection committee members logged more than 150 hours in multiple site visits, committee meetings, and deliberations, not to mention the uncounted miles that were driven.
The committee has asked the board to consider a comparative marketing study to help determine which of the two remaining sites would be the most viable due to concerns for the long-range economic stability of the project based on its location.
Adamski said, “The advantage that the Geneva site has is its central location, which is close to the Thruway and halfway between Rochester and Syracuse. The benefit of the Keuka Lake site is its intimate lakefront and wilder setting, which is more conducive to outdoor wildlife exhibits.” Plans call for natural habitats to showcase native wild animals such as bald eagles, beavers, black bears, coyotes, foxes, otters, and the unique Seneca White Deer.
The proposed $40 million Finger Lakes Museum is planned to be primarily funded by private donations and corporate grants. A committee is currently working on a fundraising program.