Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society
This National Historic Landmark was built in
1901 during the Pan-American Exposition and now houses the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society.
The research library includes a large repository of genealogical information and the museum features exhibits and an extensive collection of artifacts, manuscripts, books and photographs that chronicle the development of the Niagara Frontier.
From the museum:
We're here for you, as collectors and preservers of the artifacts and records of Western New York history, so that generations to come may understand themselves and this region better for our efforts.
We're here with the largest collection of Pan-American Exposition artifacts, to help people worldwide commemorate the l90l event which trumpeted the industrial and commercial excellence of the Americas at the turn of the last century.
Our Collections have other objects of national significance as well, such as the Red Jacket Peace Medal, the Pierce Motorette (an early motor vehicle), and prototype pacemakers, among the 80,000-plus items in our care. Sketches and paintings chronicle two centuries of growth of the city of Buffalo and surrounding land, and portraiture ranges from Peter Porter, one time Secretary of War, to Presidents Grover Cleveland and Millard Fillmore.
We're here for you with a Research Library that maintains manuscript, photographic and rare book collections, including the Holland Land Company records, letters to Millard Fillmore, and records of the Larkin Company.
If your roots are in Western New York, our extensive genealogical resources may help you find them. In many ways, the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society is here to serve you, and we welcome you to come discover us!
This building, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1987, is the only permanent building erected for the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalos international fair attended by 8,000,000 from May to November 1901.
The Exposition is best known for being the largest showcase to that time of the uses of electrical illumination. It celebrated the technological innovations that had recently harnessed the generating power of nearby Niagara Falls. During the Exposition, the building served as the New York State Pavilion and was the scene of an intensive schedule of receptions welcoming distinguished guests from around the world.
Awarded the design commission by a State-sponsored competition, young Buffalo architect George Cary (1859-1945), who had been classically trained in Paris, designed the building, faced and corniced with Vermont marble, in Doric style. The beautiful south portico, overlooking Hoyt Lake in Delaware Park, is a scaled-down version of the east front of the Parthenon, in Athens.
Cary was able to complete his original design in 1927 when the building was enlarged to accommodate the present-day Library and Auditorium. Eleven relief sculptures, designed by Edmund Amateis, surround the building, each depicting a significant event in local history. The bronze entry doors, designed by J. Woodley Gosling and sculpted by R. Hinton Perry, show allegorical figures depicting History and Ethnology.
After the Exposition closed, the building became the headquarters of the Buffalo Historical Society in 1902. The Society, founded in 1862, had previously displayed its growing collections in a series of rented spaces in downtown Buffalo.
Since that time, the building has played many roles: exhibit pavilion, repository of the stories of Western New York, resource for genealogical and historical research by students and scholars, and community gathering place.
Today the building hosts the Historical Societys Research Library (collections include 20,000 books, 200,000 photographs and 2,000 manuscript collections), its Auditorium, long term exhibits BFLO Made! and Neighbors, galleries for temporary exhibits, and the Museum Shop.
The Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society
25 Nottingham Court,
Buffalo, NY 14216-3119
Museum phone number: (716) 873-9644
www.bechs.org/
TU-SA, 10am-5pm, SU 12pm-5pm; closed most
major holidays; adults $6, seniors and students 13-21 $4, children 7-12 $2.50, children 6 and under and Historical Society members free
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