In celebration of Pride Month, we’re highlighting some of the historic Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) resources in the Grosvenor Room’s local history collection. The Buffalo Collection includes LGBTQ books, directories, creative writing, and other publications.
Our Vertical File on the Gay & Lesbian Community also includes newspaper and magazine articles, pamphlets, programs from Pride Week events, and other short publications.
The selected items featured in the photo above are listed in the online catalog. Click on the links to see the available years:
ShipIndex.org, a vessel research database, is now available via the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library. The database will be accessible through (at least) September of this year through the generosity of Peter McCracken, the database’s creator, due to the pandemic. ShipIndex can be used in-library at every B&ECPL location, or from home with a valid B&ECPL card.
McCracken’s database is an excellent resource to help tell your immigrant ancestors’ stories. It is an index to books and periodicals that feature sailing vessels. The project stemmed from his work as an intern at a maritime museum.
All that you need to get started is the name of the ship on which your ancestor travelled. Ancestry Library Edition (ALE) is an excellent resource for passenger records. ALE is available for use at every B&ECPL location. You can even bring in your personal laptop/tablet and access it via the library’s Wi-Fi. It’s such a time saver to be able to download record images directly to your device. For advice on finding your ancestor’s passenger list, click here to view our on demand class. One of the tools mentioned in the class is the Grosvenor Room’s passenger list guide, which highlights resources available for use at the Central Library and online.
A search for Western New York Polish immigrant, Julianna Golubski, was successful. Julianna and her four young children are passenger numbers 880-884 on this 1884 list.
Image: Ancestry Library Edition
Once you’ve identified your ancestor’s manifest, the name of the ship and the ship master can be found on the top of the first page of the manifest. A typical passenger ship, during periods of heavy immigration, carried hundreds (sometimes over a thousand) passengers, so manifests are usually multiple pages.
The header on the first page of the Golubski’s list shows that the family travelled from Bremen, Germany to New York City. They arrived on April 12th, 1884 on the steamer Werra. The ship’s master was Julius Barre.
Image: Ancestry Library Edition
ShipIndex is easy to use. Simply input the name of the ship in the Search box.
Image: ShipsIndex
Seventy-two citations from twenty-three sources result. Publication information is clearly displayed as well as applicable page numbers. Links to websites and online books, libraries that carry the resource, and book vendors are provided. Citations pointing to illustrations are clearly marked.
Image: ShipsIndex
It is common to see multiple ships with the same name. The citations often include the built date in parentheses next to the ship name. The Werra’s results include the dates 1876, 1882, 1891, 1922, 1923, 1958, 1974, and 2001. Since the Golubskis sailed in 1884, it is easy to eliminate all but the first two years. The next thing to look at is the type of ship. The passenger list noted that the Werra was a steamer. The 1882 ship is listed as a steamer, but the 1876 ship is listed as a barque, which has sails.
Image: ShipsIndex
Furthermore, one of the citations links to the 1884 edition of Record of American and Foreign Shipping records, which names J. Barre as master of the Werra (1882.) Julius Barre was the master on the Golubski’s 1884 manifest.
Image; Record of American and Foreign Shipping 1884. Mystic Seaport Museum.
An analysis of the sources cited, using the Central Library’s collection and online sources, provides a closer look at the Golubski’s voyage. The following details were discovered:
The Werra was built in July, 1882 by John Elder in Glasgow, Scotland. It was a four-deck, four-mast iron screw steamer. The 433 ft. long x 46 ft. wide ship had a tonnage capacity of 5109. The company that owned it was North German Lloyd (not associated with Lloyd’s Register of Shipping) or in German, Norddeutscher Lloyd. The Werra was part of its express fleet and it could travel at 17 knots (about 19.5 miles) per hour. The North German line travelled bi-weekly from Bremen to Southampton to New York City and the route took about 8 days to travel. The Werra could hold 125 first class passengers, 130 second class passengers, and 1000 third class passengers. Click here for an image of the Werra.
ShipIndex is an excellent tool, but don’t forget to look in the stacks.
Here are some good subject search terms to use with our online catalog:
June 19th marks the celebration of Juneteenth, the oldest national commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. It is also known as Freedom Day, Juneteenth Independence Day, and Black Independence Day.
On June 19th, 1865, Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston, Texas bringing news that the war had ended and that enslaved people were now free. The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the proclamation, and many slave owners continued to enslave people. With the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, Union forces were finally strong enough to enforce abolition in Texas. Juneteenth became a symbolic date representing African American freedom.
Buffalo Challenger, July 7, 1976, page 10
“The Juneteenth Festival of Buffalo was started in 1976 by B.U.I.L.D., a community-based organization, as a culturally relevant alternative to the country’s Bicentennial Celebration. The group blocked off part of Jefferson Avenue — the “Main Street” of Buffalo’s Black community — for a weekend celebration. Murals were painted and vendors set up booths to sell ethnic foods and wares — entertainment and festivity were abundant. After several years, the Juneteenth Festival outgrew Jefferson Avenue. It is now held in Martin Luther King Jr. Park at the intersection of Best Street and Fillmore Avenue.” www.juneteenthofbuffalo.com/
Photographs from the Buffalo Challenger newspaper documented that first Juneteenth celebration in Buffalo. July 7, 1976, pages 10 & 11.
This year’s Juneteenth of Buffalo celebration will be a virtual festival. See the festival website for details.
Currently on display at the Central Library is the exhibit entitled Telling the Story: Enslavement of African People in the United States. It combines a history of slavery in America along with items from the Rare Book Room’s History of Slavery Collection that document legal arguments, the lives of enslaved people, and literature created in response to slavery.
As Frederick Douglass so aptly put it, “Slavery is the great test question of our age and nation.” In many ways it still is, as our country is still dealing with the repercussions of the systematic and institutional enslavement of Africans. This exhibit seeks to highlight the History of Slavery Collection and, perhaps more ambitiously, to provoke constructive dialog about our country’s history of enslavement and its continuing aftermath.
Many of you know that the Grosvenor Room is home to numerous songbooks which can be browsed when you visit us. But, did you know that we have a hidden gem? The Central Library is home to about 100,000 pieces of individual sheet music dating from the late 1700s to the 2000s. The sheet music collection includes popular piano and vocal music, presidential songs, works by local composers such as Harold Arlen, Buffalo-themed songs, waltzes, and polkas.
The sheet music is kept in a place that we call the Tier, and is accessible only to staff. If you are interested in a particular song, let staff know and we can help. We even have a partial sheet music index by subject, if you are researching a particular theme.
Many of the sheet music covers are striking, such as the playful covers below.
Images: Courtesy Library of Congress
We hope you visit us when the Library reopens. But, in the meantime, here are some websites where you can browse more fabulous sheet music art.
HeritageQuest Online is a powerful tool for family history research . It is a subscription genealogy database available for use at home with a valid Buffalo & Erie County Public Library card (and in-library at every Buffalo & Erie County Public Library location once we re-open). If you are an Erie County resident, and don’t have a library card, click here to apply for an eLibraryCard. HeritageQuest includes U.S. census records, city directories, local and family history books, Freedman’s Bank Records, Revolutionary War pension files, the U.S. Serial Set, an obituary index and more!
The following videos detail how to get the most out of HeritageQuest Online.
Part I: Accessing HeritageQuest and Searching U S Census Records
The Grosvenor Room: Genealogy, Local History, Maps, Music & Rare Books 