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Electronic Highways
Buffalo and UB history online
Did you know that Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States, was also the first chancellor of UB, and that for a period of time he held both offices simultaneously? Or that Buffalo was named after the Buffalo River (beau fleuve, beautiful river), rather than the American bison? There is much to learn about the "Queen City" and there are a plethora of resources online to help you.
The mission of the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society is to collect, preserve and research the written, spoken, pictorial and artifactual record of the history of Western New York. While it’s always nice to spend an afternoon visiting the museum, Web-only exhibits, such as “175 Years: Celebrating the Incorporation of the City of Buffalo” and “Art Nouveau and other Expressions: Rediscovering the Architecture of Esenwein & Johnson,” are worth a “visual stroll.” Its “Links” section leads to a number of historical site's such as the “Buffalo History Works,” “Doing the Pan,” “Uncrowned Queens” and the “Western New York Heritage Press.” And, of course, what would a trip to a museum be without a stop in its store?
BuffaloResearch.com is an off-hours “labor of love” maintained by Cynthia Van Ness, director of library and archives for the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society. It includes information on local genealogical sources, maps and photographs, as well as Buffalo humor and quotations. Of particular note is the section “Buffalo Fiction: 150 Years of Novels & Short Stories,” which lists more than 100 literary works featuring Buffalo and links to a number of other related sites.
For those who like to dig in and do their own primary source research using print and microfilm editions of old newspapers, the New York State Library has produced an incredible listing of Buffalo papers of historical significance, such as the Black Rock Gazette, the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser, the Buffalo Courier, the Buffalo Criterion, the Buffalo Daily Star, the Buffalo Demokrat, the Buffalo Enquirer, the Buffalo Evening Times, the Buffalo Freie Presse, the Buffalo Labor Journal, the Buffalo Patriot and Journal and many, many more.
For information about the history of UB, the University Archives is the place to go. In addition to a “timeline of UB history,” the Archives’ Web site has a wide array of online exhibits focusing on aspects of UB history, including “Student life at UB” and “A distinguished legacy... expanding today's world... shaping the future: Looking at the University at Buffalo in the 21st century.”
—Karen Walton Morse, University Libraries