Pan American Exposition Booklet with Visitor Notes

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Pan American Exposition Booklet pictured above was recently acquired by the Rare Book Room. Dr. R[ay] V[aughn] Pierce sponsored the publication of this “Free Guide to the Exposition, Buffalo and Vicinity, with Map.”  Not only did this booklet impart valuable information about the 1901 Expo and the Buffalo environs, but it also dispensed medical advice while it promoted “Dr. Pierce’s Golden Medical Discovery” and “Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Prescription” too! Pierce’s patented elixirs claimed to cure everything from pimples and problems nursing to hemorrhoids and heart failure.

This particular booklet is remarkable for its excellent condition and unique for the owner/visitor’s pencil annotations. The reader is transported back in time to October 7, 1901 when this person notes arriving at the Pan Am “at 15 to 2 p.m.”  S/he makes full lists all of the buildings, the Midway and  other sights s/he toured and was apparently a neighbor from the North based upon the last note in the booklet stating s/he “went on train & home … arrived in Toronto,” . There is even a note “saw spot where McKinley was killed.” There is a also a page on which s/he has tallied up his/her trips expenditures which add up to “880”. In 1901 this must have  meant $8.80  although today such a trip to a world’s fair would probably cost upwards of $880.00!

Buffalo on the Map Exhibit

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The latest exhibit in the Grosvenor Rare Book display room is You Are Here: Buffalo on the Map. Featured in our display cases are several rare and one-of-a-kind maps of Buffalo recently conserved thanks to a New York State Discretionary Grant. Among them, our infamous red-light district map from 1893, Mann’s Map of the Buffalo Harbor, and Map of Buffalo Village, 1805, made under the direction of the Young Men’s Association. Our wall panels include facsimiles of maps of the Olmsted parks system, the church district maps, pictorial maps and the harbor. Come see Buffalo’s landscape as it develops from an early 19th century pioneer settlement into a flourishing center of commerce and industry.

From the Library Archives: Central Library Dedication, October 17, 1964

This week we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the dedication of our Central Library building. On October 17, 1964, the newly built 5-story Library, the anchor of the Buffalo & Erie County System, was formally opened by civic leaders, authors, educators, and a crowd of spectators.  Dedication events included concerts on the Library ramp by the U.B. Band and U.S. Army Band.

Dedication Program, October 1964

At 375, 000 square feet, it was the largest public library built in the United States since WWII.  Covering two city blocks, the building is longer, at 437 feet, than the height of City Hall, at 378 feet.  Built to house over 2 million volumes, much of the collection is housed in the Closed Stacks, two floors of storage between public floors, known to staff as “the tiers.”  By 1965, there were 50 miles of shelving in the Library.

The original interior design featured royal blue and vermilion (bright orange-red) furniture, and black walnut wood paneling and fixtures.

“The Reader’s Library,” Courier Express, October 11, 1964.

Central Library Information booklet, 1964.

The construction of the Central Library was one of the many milestones in the merging of the Buffalo Public Library, the Erie County Library  System, and the Grosvenor Reference Library.  Many of the books that were moved into the Central Library from the Grosvenor and Buffalo Public Libraries form the core of our current Local History and Genealogy Collections.

Central Library postcard, 1964

“More important than any building as a material entity is the spirit and philosophy which animates it. And no one can mistake the beliefs and aspirations that underlie our investments in free public libraries. They bespeak our dedication to freedom to read and the pursuit of truth and enlightenment.” “More Than a Building.” Editorial. Buffalo News, October 17, 1964.