Following the assassination of President William McKinley, the nation looked for ways to express its grief regarding the sudden death of the immensely popular president. These ranged from letters written to McKinley’s grief-stricken wife, to flowers laid in the Temple of Music where the President was shot, to purchasing a wide variety of memo...
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Theodore Roosevelt famously enjoyed leading family and friends – not to mention an unsuspecting diplomat or two – on point-to-point hikes. His philosophy on these outings can be summarized as: “Over, under, or through, but never around.” In 1964, as concern grew that the home where Theodore Roosesvelt first took the presiden...
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Before any big event, there are always last minute details - finalizing the menu, putting out extra chairs, some light cleaning, etc. But what happens when a key piece of your event has been lost in the mail? That’s the position that the Site was in when, less than a week before its opening on September 14th, 1971, a large box of custom-made ...
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There is an often-used saying about Buffalo weather: “If you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes and it will change.” In 1901, with the Pan-American Exposition’s May 1st opening day approaching rapidly, construction crews battled an abnormally wet winter and spring. Then, a freak April snowstorm dropped almost 10 inche...
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UPDATE: Since the Speaker Nite presentation referenced in this blog post -- and, indeed, since this blog post was written -- the American Museum of Natural History has requested that the Equestrian Statue of Theodore Roosevelt be removed from the museum’s steps. Read more here. Follow this link to watch the Speaker Nite presentat...
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Note: Digital images of the entire Log Cabin register are available by following this link. One of the most intriguing items in the TR Site’s collection is a visitors’ log [1986.010.001] that looks pretty unremarkable at first glance. This book was the guest register from a Pan-American Exposition building called the Log Cabin &...
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Looking for something to keep your mind occupied during the coronavirus shutdown? We’ve pulled together some of our favorite Speaker Nite recordings and grouped them into thematic playlists. Enjoy! Theodore Roosevelt is inextricably linked to the Progressive Era -- he is one of the most recognizable presidents from that period and when he sp...
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Looking for something to keep your mind occupied during the coronavirus shutdown? We’ve pulled together some of our favorite Speaker Nite recordings and grouped them into thematic playlists. Enjoy! TR is often remembered as the conservation president. After all, he established 150 national forests, 51 federal bird reserves, four national gam...
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Looking for something to keep your mind occupied during the coronavirus shutdown? We’ve pulled together some of our favorite Speaker Nite recordings and grouped them into thematic playlists. Enjoy! The history of Buffalo and Western New York is long and has many twists and turns. These recordings highlight just a few elements of that ...
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Looking for something to keep your mind occupied during the coronavirus shutdown? We’ve pulled together some of our favorite Speaker Nite recordings and grouped them into thematic playlists. Enjoy! In 1900, Theodore Roosevelt observed, “Altogether, there are few harder tasks than that of filling well and ably the office of President ...
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Looking for something to keep your mind occupied during the coronavirus shutdown? We’ve pulled together some of our favorite Speaker Nite recordings and grouped them into thematic playlists. Enjoy! Theodore Roosevelt is often remembered as the first modern U.S. President, but he did many other things over the course of his lifetime. ...
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The Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site (TR Site) is undertaking a broad reevaluation of its children's/family programming. Summer intern Leslie Hoag, a History major and Museum Studies/Public History minor at SUNY College at Brockport, has taken on the project. In addition to surveying the field to see what other museums are offeri...
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Ansley Wilcox: Buffalo's Philanthropic Hero Visitors to the TR Site are sometimes so excited about Theodore Roosevelt that it’s easy to forget this was also the longtime home of the Wilcox family. Beyond their presidential connection, the Wilcoxes were prominent Buffalonians in their own right: Ansley was a well-respected attorney and Mary G...
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Follow this link to watch Don Haas's presentation on YouTube. Last month, the TR Site had the pleasure of welcoming environmental educator Dr. Don Haas from the Paleontological Research Institution to its ongoing Speaker Nite series. His talk, “Fire & Brimstone & Fort McMurray: Considering the Implications of Apocalyptic Rhetoric in...
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It’s a time of transition at the TR Site. As the spring semester draws to a close and the summer gets underway, we have interns coming and going. We recently bid a fond farewell to intern Leah Glenn, a graduate student in Buffalo State’s Museum Studies program. Leah discovered her passion for collections work while doing ...
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As we head into June and wedding season kicks into high gear, it brings to my mind all of the times that we hear from a visitor that “my parents/grandparents/aunt and uncle/second cousin once removed [or some version thereof] had their wedding reception here.” Many of those folks are referring to the time between 1938 and 1961 when 641 ...
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Follow this link to watch Tom Kerr's presentation on YouTube. The TR Site’s April Speaker Nite featured Tom Kerr, the Audubon Society’s Naturalist and Niagara River IBA Specialist. His presentation, "Community Science: Continuing a Long Tradition,” explored the many ways individuals can get involved with science, the environment...
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The official goal of Buffalo’s 1901 Pan-American Exposition was to commemorate the achievements of the 19th century and “to illustrate the progress and civilization of the nations of the Western Hemisphere.” However, for those visitors not interested in solely the educational aspects of the fair and looking to have a little fun, t...
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This month’s Artifact-of-the-Month is a stereoview of Theodore Roosevelt. Stereoviews (or stereographs, stereograms, or stereopticans) are cards that have two nearly identical views of the same image. When placed in a viewer, they give the image a 3-dimensional effect. Stereoviews were popular from mid-1800’s until around the end of Wor...
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Since March is Women’s History Month, we are highlighting paintings of three Wilcox women. Mary Grace Rumsey Wilcox was the “lady of the house” at 641 Delaware Avenue. She was Ansley’s second wife and the sister of his first wife. When Mary Grace and Ansley married in 1883, she became stepmother to her three-year-ol...
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Follow this link to watch Jamila Michener’s presentation on YouTube. This past month, we partnered with Cornell in Buffalo to bring Dr. Jamila Michener to the TR Site for our ongoing Speaker Nite series. Dr. Michener is an Assistant professor in the department of Government at Cornell University and author of Fragmented Democracy: Medicaid,...
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Follow this link to watch Tonya Myles-Day’s presentation on YouTube. The TR Site’s ongoing Speaker Nite series recently featured Professor Tonya Myles-Day LMSW, Adjunct Professor of Social Work at Buffalo State College. Her presentation, “A Century of Social Work: The Power of Jane Addams”, combined her professi...
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The Wilcox house at 641 Delaware Avenue is sitting empty. The community is concerned about its fate. But this isn’t the early 1960’s . . . it’s 1936. Mary Grace Wilcox had died in 1933 and the contents of the house had been auctioned off the previous year. In an odd preview of the drive that would, three decades later, successfull...
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Follow this link to watch Dr. Kowsky’s presentation on YouTube. On Tuesday, October 24th, Dr. Francis Kowsky, SUNY Distinguished Professor Emeritus, continued our lecture series with his talk, Buffalo’s First Preservationist: Olaf “Bill” Shelgren. Dr. Kowsky began by mentioning that the TR Site's Shelgren exhibit (open t...
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***Follow this link to watch Dr. Jacoby’s presentation on YouTube*** On Tuesday, September 26th, Dr. Karl Jacoby from Columbia University continued our lecture series with his talk, “Crimes Against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves & the Hidden History of American Conservation.” Dr. Jacoby began by setting out two purpo...
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**Follow this link to watch Dr. Martinez-Matsuda's presentation on YouTube.** On Tuesday, August 22nd, Dr. Veronica Martinez-Matsuda from Cornell University continued our lecture series with her talk, “Making ‘Unfree’ Labor: From Asian Exclusion to the U.S.-Mexico Border Wall.” This topic is particularly relevant in ...
Full Post“The future of the nation depends on upon the citizenship of the generations to come.” - Theodore Roosevelt, Fifth Annual Message to Congress, December 5th, 1905 - Theodore Roosevelt’s Fifth Annual Message to Congress wasn’t like the State of the Union addresses we’re used to seeing on TV today. In fact, his m...
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Local attorney and amateur book collector Mark W. Warren, Esq., wrapped up the TR Site’s 2016 Speaker Nite series on October 25th. Standing next to a display of books (some with elaborately crafted covers), Mr. Warren began by characterizing his talk as “show-and-tell for grown-ups”. He promised to share the sto...
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I feel like I should start this post with a disclaimer: Acadia National Park, on Maine’s Mount Desert Island, is one of my all-time favorite places, ever. Which explains why I was so excited when Ronald Epp (who recently finished the first book-length biography of park founder George Bucknam Dorr) contacted me to find out if the TR...
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The TR Site’s ongoing Speaker Nite series recently welcomed Dr. Shannon Risk, Associate Professor of History at Niagara University. Dr. Risk has been researching the women’s suffrage movement in Western New York, which has – until now – been largely overlooked by historians. Her talk at the TR Site was the first time t...
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Last week, the TR Site kicked off its 2016 Speaker Nite series by welcoming historian Martin S. Nowak, author of The White House in Mourning. His presentation focused on the eight American presidents who died in office: William Henry Harrison (1841); Zachary Taylor (1850); Abraham Lincoln (1865); James A. Garfield (1881); William McKinley (1...
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As the train slowly pulled away from the Buffalo station in the early morning hours of September 16th, 1901, newly sworn-in President Theodore Roosevelt could have looked to his right and caught a glimpse of Buffalo’s First Ward. He would’ve looked over an urban landscape buzzing with activity and industry along the Buffalo River. The ...
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Recently, we welcomed environmental historian Dr. Adam Rome to the TR Site’s ongoing speaker series. His presentation was called “Nature Wars, Culture Wars,” and it focused largely on how immigration and immigrants were viewed by American environmental reformers during the early years of the twentieth century. Based o...
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One of the categories in our recent TRivia Nite contest dealt with mnemonics –those memory tricks that help you remember things. For example, as a kid growing up on Long Island, my only hope of remembering the order of the Great Lakes involved silently reciting, “She Made Harry Eat Onions” as I penciled in “Superior, ...
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