Gala Opening Set for Pan-Am Library Exhibitions

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo Libraries will open eight separate exhibitions on the 1901 Pan-American Exposition with a gala public reception from 1-4 p.m. on July 12 in the Special Collections Reading Room, 420 Capen Hall on the North (Amherst) Campus.

In addition, a symposium, "The Assassination, the Outlaw and the Outcome," will be held from noon to 3 p.m. July 21, also in the Special Collections Reading Room.

Although both events are free of charge and open to the public, reservations are strongly suggested by July 6 and July 16, respectively, by calling Kathleen Delaney at 645-2916.

The eight exhibits will continue throughout the summer. Most UB libraries are open during the summer from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., while some are open until 9 p.m. and others have weekend hours. For library hours, call the individual libraries or go to the UB Libraries' Web site at .

The July 12 reception will feature music by the Pan-American Strings Club and an address by Kerry Grant, UB vice provost for academic affairs, dean of the Graduate School and author of "Finding the Rainbow City: Uncovering Light, Color and Architecture at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901."

Peggy Brooks-Bertram, Ph.D., an associate for faculty development and graduate fellowship programs in the Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Urban Affairs at UB, and Barbara Nevergold, Ph.D., coordinator of student support services in UB's Educational Opportunity Center, will make a presentation based on the exhibit, "Uncrowned Queens -- African American Women and the Pan-Am," that will open that day in the Silverman Undergraduate Library in Capen Hall.

Producer John Welksnar of Electric City Publishing will discuss how Buffalo souvenir music was created from 1894 to 1906, and Jean Dickson, associate librarian and curator of the Polish Collection of Lockwood Memorial Library, will present a talk on the wide variety of mandolin clubs in Buffalo, circa 1901.

The July 21 symposium will be presented in cooperation with the Western New York Branch of the National League of American Pen Women and ZONTA Club of Buffalo, whose papers comprise part of the UB Archives' Women's History Collection.

Light refreshments will be served.

Speakers will include Charles Rand Penney, grandson of Thomas Penney, Erie County district attorney in the case against Leon Czologsz, assassin of President William McKinley. He will share his grandfather's scrapbooks and discuss his family's participation in the case and in the exposition itself.

Leslie Wolf, assistant librarian at the Charles Sears Law Library at UB, will discuss research into the laws related to anarchy and sedition, and their impact on immigrant populations since 1901, as well as describe the Law Library exhibition covering those subjects.

Sister M. Paula Fox, representing the archives committee of ZONTA Club of Buffalo, will discuss Marian de Forest, secretary of the 1901 Women's Pavilion of the Pan-Am Exposition and the founder of ZONTA International, the first global service club for professional women. De Forest will be inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls on Oct. 6.

The UB libraries' exhibitions embrace many aspects of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition and will be found in eight of the university's nine libraries through the summer.

The UB librarians have been sifting through the holdings of the university's archives and special collections for many months deciding which of the thousands of artifacts and documents held by UB might best represent specific aspects of the Pan-American Exposition.