History, Natural History & the Arts
The Buffalo History Museum is set to welcome Tyler Bagwell, local folk singer and writer, on Wednesday, November 6th, at 6 pm, for “Low Bridge, Everybody Down: Buffalo’s Story in Song.”
The program is a history of Buffalo from 1812-1912 told through the battle dirges, lake shanties, murder ballads, canal hollers, underground railroad songs, and courting tunes of that period. [Read more…] about A Folk Singer & Writer Interprets Buffalo’s History
Longtime political reporter of the Buffalo News, Bob McCarthy is set to discuss a variety of political and related topics on Wednesday, October 23rd, from 6 to 7:30 pm, at the Buffalo History Museum.
McCarthy will be joined by Budd Bailey, a longtime colleague of his from their work together in The Buffalo News. [Read more…] about Politics, Journalism History Talk Planned in Buffalo
Six decades of Buffalo Bills football stories are set to be told through exhibitions, events, and programming at The Buffalo History Museum in October.
The month features new artifacts in the Icons exhibit, an exhibit of original artwork highlighting Bills artifacts, memories, unique stories, and more. [Read more…] about Buffalo Museum Celebrating 60 Years of Bills Football
The Western New York Genealogical Society has announced Researching Genealogy at the New York State Archives, an event set for Saturday, September 21, from 10:30 am to noon, at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, Central Branch Central Meeting Room, 2nd Floor, 1 Lafayette Square, Buffalo. [Read more…] about Researching Genealogy at NYS Archives in Buffalo
A nineteenth century invading army’s journey into battle had two options, by land or by water. In the winter of 1838 the patriot army, which sought to invade Canada from New York State and overthrow the British Crown, saw a third alternative – by ice.
With Lake Erie covered with ice, “a band of the invaders determined to make it an avenue of passage across to Canada at a point where discovery would be improbable,” according to Our County and Its People, A History of Erie County published in 1898. [Read more…] about The Patriot War: Republic of Canada
When the fugitive William Lyon MacKenzie arrived in Buffalo Dec. 11, 1837, both the Lake Erie city and the United States were at the dawn of great expansion. The Erie Canal had been completed a decade earlier, and Buffalo was now the gateway for western migration.
There also was talk of expansion to the nation’s south. Just a year earlier, American frontiersmen had taken up arms and carved the Republic of Texas out of Mexico Could northern expansion also be part of America’s destiny? If not expansion, could Americans at least help their neighbors throw off the last English claim on North America? [Read more…] about The Patriot War: ‘Remember the Caroline’
William Lyon MacKenzie strode into a packed theater in Buffalo, NY on the night of Dec. 12, 1837, his blue eyes blazing beneath his high, broad forehead, his sandy whiskers a chinstrap beard. The short, wiry 42-year-old native of Scotland had arrived in the booming border city a day earlier, a fugitive with a price on his head, after launching an ill-fated rebellion against the oligarchy that ruled colonial Canada.
More than 2,000 Buffalo residents waited anxiously to hear him speak, quite a crowd for a city of not even 18,000 souls. [Read more…] about The Forgotten War Between the United States and Canada
On June 17, 1909 the Broadalbin Herald newspaper reported on a canal boat that sunk in Fort Hunter that was loaded with 240 tons of salt. The barge, George Bleistein had been hauling the salt in a “double header” (both barges being towed together) along with the Col. J.H. Horton. Both barges were from Buffalo and captained by George H. Ray of Port Byron. The George Bleistein sank ON the Schoharie Creek Aqueduct.
Reportedly, a steam pump and diver were required to raise the boat and the cargo was thought to be a total loss. The bags of salt were consigned to The International Salt Company of New York, which continues today in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. [Read more…] about A Sunken Buffalo Canal Barge, A Coal Baron, A Canal Diver & A Publisher
Christopher Klein, author of When the Irish Invaded Canada: The Incredible True Story of the Civil War Veterans Who Fought for Ireland’s Freedom (Doubleday, 2019), is set to share the true story of the Civil War veterans who fought for Ireland’s freedom by launching attacks on Canada, on Monday, April 8 at 6:30 pm at the American Irish Historical Society in New York City. [Read more…] about Fenian Irish Raids On Canada Historian Speaking In NYC
A presentation, Tracing Your Family Tree, is set for Wednesday, April 24th at the Buffalo History Museum, One Museum Court, Buffalo.
Join D. Joshua Taylor, President of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, will discuss how to best access and use important collections for genealogical research, with a focus on the New York collections. Highlights of specific materials (and what treasures can be found) will be discussed alongside techniques for preparing to do research, either online or in Albany. [Read more…] about Tracing Your Family Tree at Buffalo History Museum