Local History
Local History in the Grosvenor Room
Atlases: Approximately 100 atlases for Buffalo, Erie County, other New York State Counties; U.S. History including the Civil War, and atlases covering other countries. Many date from the mid-to-late 19th century and can be used to identify local property owners, national boundary changes or lost villages.
Buffalo Collection: Contains an estimated 4,000 volumes about people, places, and things in Buffalo and Erie County. The scrapbook collection consists of about 400 scrapbooks filled with newspaper articles. They were compiled between 1930 and 1975 but many volumes have articles that were published before 1930.
Local History Files: The following were created in-house. Most are no longer being expanded.
|
Name of Card File |
Topics Covered |
Size and Scope |
|
Local History File |
Essentially a newspaper index covering Buffalo people, places, things, and history. Our most comprehensive resource for Buffalo research. |
About 300,000 citations on 100,000 cards. Most articles listed date from c.1920 to 1982. |
|
"Buffalo" File |
A file of fast facts about Buffalo, such as our firsts, oldest this, largest that. |
About 6,000 cards. Most citations date from c.1920-1960. |
|
Famous Visitors File |
An index to Buffalo's cultural life, with citations for plays, concerts, lectures, and performers. |
About 15,000 cards. Most citations date from c.1870-1960. |
|
Great Lakes File |
An index to articles about the geology, industry, ports, vessels, shipwrecks, and history of the Great Lakes. |
About 5,000 cards from the late 1800s to the 1930s, not including individuals (such as captains or sailors) or newspaper articles. |
|
Beer Industry in Buffalo |
A file of known brewers and distributors, with addresses and dates and a bibliography. |
About 300 cards. |
|
Pan-American Exposition Index |
An index to the library's Pan-American scrapbooks, which contain articles about exhibits, organizers, events, famous visitors, etc. |
About 3,000 cards citing local newspaper articles mainly from 1901. |
|
Prominent Black Buffalonians File |
A biographical file about local African-Americans of the past and present. |
About 1000 cards created in the 1980s. |
|
Buffalo Fires |
A chronological file listing major local fires in houses, hotels, factories, and other buildings |
About 500 cards from 1850-1977 |
|
Coat of Arms Index |
A file arranged by surname with citations for illustrations and/or descriptions of family crests |
About 6,000 cards, some with illustrations attached. |
Maps: We have an estimated 80,000 maps that consist of local, regional, state, national, and international maps, including nautical and aeronautical charts. We own U.S. topographic maps for the states east of the Mississippi. Also available are Buffalo Ward maps for use in census research, and election maps showing current councilmanic districts, county legislative districts, senate, assembly, and congressional districts.