Central Terminal Day with the Bisons!

Help support the New York Central Terminal restoration while you cheer on the Buffalo Bisons, next Thursday, August 5^th: Click here for more information on the game and tickets.  The first 4,000 fans through the Swan St. gate will even receive a Central Terminal Replica!

Source: Vertical Photo File (Photographer and date unknown)

 If you’re unfamiliar with this popular Art-Deco masterpiece, you can still catch an “Inside the Central Terminal Tour” this summer.  And if you’re interested in learning more about the terminal and the New York Central Railroad, the Grosvenor Room has several sources of material available.

Flowers flowers everywhere…

Did you miss the Buffalo Garden Walk last weekend?  Don’t fret- come to the Central Library for the latest exhibit from the Rare Book Room.  In the Garden: the Art of Botanical Illustration runs through September 26.  Giclée artist prints from the exhibit are also on sale at the Central Library bookstore.

There are also community garden walks in the next few weeks, including East Aurora, Black Rock and Riverside, and Kenmore-Tonawanda.  Click here for more information.

Chickens!

Source: Dixon, Edmund Saul and Kerr, J.J.  A Treatise on the History and Management of Ornamental and Domestic Poultry.  Philadelphia: E.H. Butler & Co., 1851.  From the Rare Book Collection, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library.

Buffalo in Bloom

Summer is in full bloom in Western New York, and what better way to celebrate than with an appreciation of the beauty of gardens!  The highly anticipated Garden Walk is this weekend, one of several area events that are part of the new National Buffalo Garden Festival.   (Be sure to check out the Rare Book Room exhibit at the Central Library that coincides with the Festival: In the Garden: The Art of Botanical Illustration)

These Garden Walk programs from years past are just some of the items in the Vertical File on “Gardens” in the Grosvenor Room.  These subject files contain ephemera, such as pamphlets, brochures, flyers, and newspaper clippings, on hundreds of local history topics.   The Vertical Files are also a good place to find information on subjects that are not well-covered in books or other publications.

Collection Highlight: Yearbooks

Members of the senior class. 1941 Fosdick Masten Park High School. The Chronicle, pp.26-27.

Did you know that the Central Library has hundreds of local yearbooks?  High school and college yearbooks for various city and suburban schools can be found in the Buffalo Collection in the Grosvenor Room.  Some college yearbooks and alumni directories are stored in the closed stacks and can be retrieved in minutes by staff.  Click here to view the schools and years available.

While the bulk of the collection is between 1920 and 1980, we do have a few yearbooks from early schools dating back to the 1860s.  The collection also includes literary publications for some schools.

Varsity Football team, 1899 University at Buffalo. The Iris, p. 285.

Tonawanda Senior High School, 1955. The Tonawandan, p. 36.

Though often overlooked by genealogists, yearbooks can provide a fascinating glimpse into an ancestor’s youth.   They can also be used by local history researchers exploring a certain time period or school related history.  And, as with modern day yearbooks, many include advertisements useful for local business research.

Advertisement. South Park High School, 1928. The Dial, p. 121.

As the yearbooks were acquired through the years largely by donation, we do not own every year for every school.  If the yearbook you are looking for is not listed in our guide, we suggest contacting the school to see if they have a copy.

Cuneiform

The Rare Book Room holds more than books; our collection includes thousands of non-book items such as artwork, photographs, newspapers, maps, posters, and other formats.  At over 4,000 years old, the oldest non-book items we hold is our small but notable collection of cuneiform.  These were donated in 1935 by a professor from the University of Chicago after he returned from an archaeological expedition.

Cuneiform is one of the earliest forms of writing; a blunt reed or stylus was used to create the wedge-shaped symbols [in Latin, cuneus = wedge].  The symbols were imprinted on soft clay, then dried in the sun or air.  For records that were to be kept, the clay would be fired.

The collection is made up of four cones and four tablets.  The cones date from about 2150 BCE, and were uncovered in the Mesopotamian cities of Umma and Erech.  The tablets date from 2300 BCE, and are from Umma and Nippur.  What do these ancient items document?  Many are business records, consisting of receipts and bills of sale; others [in particular 3 of the cones,] are temple records.

Welcome Type Campers!

From July 18 to 23, a comprehensive, hands-on “type camp” will be held at the WNY Book Arts Center. The type camp websitestates:

Campers will experiment with timeless techniques including papermaking, foil stamping, and even typecasting during this intensive hands-on week. There will be field trips to type dealers, rare book collections, and as a special experience, the final day of camp will take place at the legendary Roycroft press.

Similar successful camps have been held in London, England; Chennai, India; and Galiano Island, Canada.  Buffalo has a prestigious history in type founding and printing.  The Rare Book Room has a collection of Buffalo printers and type specimen books.  One such book, Specimen Book of Plain and Ornamental Printing Types by Nathan Lyman is highlighted here.

Type founder Nathan Lyman began his career working for Elihu White in 1810. Later, he was affiliated with R. Starr and Company in Albany. In 1835, he moved to Buffalo with his wife Jane (Van Vaylor) and in May started the Buffalo Type Foundry with the backing of White. Lyman’s business was the first type foundry west of Albany. Later, Lyman owned the foundry outright, and five of his sons joined him in the business. Nathan Lyman died February 16, 1873. Buffalo Type Foundry continued operation by Lyman’s sons and grandsons until 1892, when it was sold to the American Type Founders Company.

For more information on Type Camp and the Western New York Book Arts Center, visit http://www.wnybookarts.org/

The Contemporary Twain

Four years before he died, Mark Twain dictated his autobiography to a stenographer.  In his will, Twain declared that the work should not be published for 100 years after his death [he died in 1910].  Although versions of this work have been previously published, they had been heavily edited, rearranging the work to read in a chronological fashion, and up to half of his original work.  This November, the University of California Press will publish the first of 3 volumes of Twain’s autobiography as it appeared in the original manuscript, providing new insight into Twain’s view of his contemporary world.

Read more about the autobiography from the NY Times

Read excerpts from the autobiography from the PBS Newshour

View an interview with the editors of the autobiography from PBS Newshour

Amy Stewart Podcast

In conjunction with our current exhibit, In the Garden: The Art of Botanical Illustration, NY Times bestselling author and expert gardener Amy Stewart spoke at the Central Library on June 26.  If you missed the lecture, don’t worry!  A podcast is available of the event; click here.

Mark your calendars for our next speaker, NPR’s Ira Flatow!  Mr. Flatow will be at the Central Library on Saturday, September 11th at 2pm.  The event is free and open to the public.

Those lost newspaper clippings…

Most of us have clipped and saved a newspaper article about ourselves, a friend, or family member.  And over the years, these little clippings can be easily lost or torn.  Or we can no longer identify when the article was published.  How can you find and replace those lost articles?

When you know the date of publication: You can browse the newspapers on microfilm in the Grosvenor Room.  We have the Courier Express (1926-1982) and the Buffalo [Evening] News (1881-present).  The newspaper on microfilm will look exactly as the paper did when published (with the exception of color; film is black & white only), with headlines, text, images, and advertisements.

When you don’t know the date of publication: Browsing microfilm can be a tedious process when you don’t know which month or even which year to start with.  Luckily, there are some resources that can help you narrow down the date, and often provide an exact citation.  Depending on the time frame, you may find one or more of the following tools useful:

•  1930-1982. Local History [Card] File: A selective newspaper index for articles from the Buffalo [Evening] News and Courier Express. Arranged A-Z by subject, this card file includes articles on local people, places, and events.  If you find a card that contains the article you are seeking, it will include a full citation with the name of the paper, date, and page number on which it appeared.
• 1983-1996.  Western New York Index:  This is a set of printed indexes that contain citations for Buffalo News articles by subject.  Each volume covers one individual year, and also includes a separate Personal Names section.

Once you find your article or image, you can print a copy from the microfilm reader machine. Copies are 20 cents per page.