By JENNIFER LEWANDOWSKI
Reporter Assistant Editor
More than 900 items of memorabilia from the Pan-American Exposition
of 1901culled from a very serious group of Pan-Am collectors and featuring
everything from china and glass souvenirs, to postcards and posters
and an official Pan-Am flag and quiltwill be on display at UB beginning
Wednesday. The collection constitutes the largest public exhibit ever
of Pan-Am memorabilia.
"Tangible Memories: Souvenirs of Buffalo's Pan-American Exposition"
will be on display from Wednesday through Sept. 30 in the UB Gallery
in the Center for the Arts as part of the university's ongoing celebration
of the Pan-Am centennial. The exhibit will showcase those items that
were purchased at the 1901 Pan-Am or that specifically mention the Pan-Am
and were sold in Buffalo during the exposition.
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Postcards
will be among the memorabilia on display as part of "Tangible
Memories." |
An opening reception is planned from 7-8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
"It's a rare opportunity to view the things that people were buying
and bringing home as souvenirs 100 years ago," says Fred Lavin, founder
and current president of the Pan-American Expo Collectors Society.
For the exhibit, between 900 and 1,000 items will be viewable in 38
display cases, along with some 30 wall hangings. Roughly 25 collectors
in the society are loaning their items, Lavin says, with other non-members
also contributing to the exhibit, which has taken a year to plan.
The display items vary widely. Among them are a policeman's badge
and belt buckle used and worn by one of the officers in the force created
specially for the Pan-Am; one of the 1,000 official Pan-Am flags that
soared from exposition buildings; a straight razor bearing a picture
of the Electric Tower; beer trays; candy boxes; mugs and tankards, and
hand-held paper fans.
Because the Pan-Am was called the "Pan" for short, many of the items,
Lavin explains, either were shaped as frying pans and dust pans, or
featured such symbols on the souvenirsuch as a paper fan that on one
side boasts an advertisement for Welch's grape juice, and on the other,
a picture of a frying pan.
Some other unusual pieces from the exhibit collection include a Pan-Am
board game manufactured by Parker Brothers in 1901; a brass souvenir
bell made of salvaged metal from the USS Maine, a ship sunk during the
Spanish American War, and a penny-square quilt crafted by women attending
the Pan-Am who would trace with red thread any number of sketches already
drawn lightly on the fabricsuch as exposition buildings, President
William McKinley and the first lady, the U.S. flag, an eagle and various
nature scenes.
"I think it's going to be well-presented, and it's going to be a very
unusual opportunity to see a large amount of material," Lavin says of
the exhibition. "The Buffalo area has a huge inferiority complex, and
it's interestingin 1895, they talked about that exact same thing.
"The Pan-Am Expo was something that Buffalo could be very proud of.
It was probably one of our...greatest achievements," says Lavin, noting
that collectingand sharing that collectionencourages people to learn
about and reflect on the Pan-Am.
In conjunction with "Tangible Memories," UB will host "Pan-Amania"
Sept. 22 and 23. The public is invited to bring its Pan-Am artifacts
to the CFA, where collectors will provide historical and financial information
on those items.
A Buffalo native, Lavin in 1994 established the group, which has more
than 60 members from across the country, and even a member in Europe.
He says members enjoy getting togethersix times yearly, and always
in Western New Yorkto exchange information, trade items and learn more
about the Pan-Am.
For more information on the exhibit, contact Michele Gallant at 645-2711
or mgallant@buffalo.edu, or
Lavin at panamxpo@adelphia.net.