The Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society is located about 20 minutes outside of West Seneca, NY. This Historical Society has some extremely interesting areas. They are loacted on Nottingham Terrace just off of Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo, NY. They have a wonderful Pan Am Exposition display in the building. The exhibit, a reinstallation that includes the materials housed in the Pan-Am Building during the Centennial, transforms this 100+ year old trolley barn into a Pan-Am Exposition hall. The combined exhibit features “the Little Building,” a rediscovered structure from the Pan-Am grounds, plus artifacts and hands-on displays that explore the exposition’s funny and serious sides. Their collections include Erie Canal:
Commemorative plates, medals, ribbons, Canvas White's canal boat model. Lives of threePresidents:
Millard Fillmore's Union Continentals silver uniform buttons, and his charcoal sketch by George Healy, Grover Cleveland's wedding cakebox, William McKinley's cigars, and the revolver used by Leon Czolgosz in McKinley's assassination. ndustrialization: Bethlehem Steel patterns, steelworker tools and protective gear, Trico windshield wipers, Pierce Motorette, aircraft engines, and hundreds of other local products; artifacts associated with union labor, such as badges, ribbons, and a union musician's cap from Local 533, American Federation of Musicians, The Colored Musicians Local. Immigrants:
Personal tools, gear, and household effects from many of the region's diverse ethnic and cultural groups. Aviation and the War Effort:
Uniforms, equipment, weapons, Elias Brothers artifacts, and Bell and Curtiss Wright artifacts, including one of the oldest surviving Bell helicopters. Textiles:
The largest collection in Western New York, featuring quilts, samplers, lace, and clothing. Paintings:
Approximately 500 works documenting two centuries of the region's changing landscape, and the men and women who helped shape the area's history; nationally recognized artists including William H. Beard, Raphael Beck, Alvah Bradish, Thomas LeClear, Augustus Rockwell, Lars G. Sellstedt, and William Wilgus; John Mix Stanley's Trial of Red Jacket; and works by Joseph Josephs, a 19th century "colorful" sign painter and booster of both Buffalo and the early Republican party.
Glass and Ceramics:
Collected by private individuals reflecting technological developments and taste in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries
more