Treasure lives amidst the rubble of lost neighborhoods. Mixed-media artist Elizabeth Leader found a discarded family album and transformed it into collages that capture the rise and fall of the Rust Belt, honoring the immigrants and refugees who built America. Discarded Ancestors is a unique and beautiful coffee table book that poignantly illustrates a vibrant era in the nation’s industrial past couched within its decline.
The fascinating story of the historic Elmwood District is told for the first time, from the arrival on the Niagara Frontier of Joseph Ellicott, through the role played by Frederick Law Olmsted’s parks and parkways, and into the decline and renewal during the modern era. This lushly illustrated book educates and enlightens, telling the stories of the people who gave Elmwood its enduring character, transforming it from dense forest into one of America’s top ten neighborhoods.
For more than 50 years Mark Goldman’s life has been intertwined with the life of the city of Buffalo. His work as an historian, as a teacher, as the creator of the Calumet Arts Café and the Allen Street Hardware Café, in addition to his extensive engagement in some of the most important public policy debates of our times, has provided him with unique insights into the recent history of our city. In addition to detailed accounts of Black Rock, the Italian West Side, South and North Buffalo and Central Park, the book also discusses the origins of the preservation movement, the Buffalo school desegregation case, the story of Chippewa Street and the Calumet Arts Café, the Bass Pro Controversy, and so much more. City of My Heart is romantic and infused with hope, an effort to extract from the often painful pages of our history aspects of our past that will inspire faith in ourselves and our community. “I want this book to water the wholesome,” Mark says, “to help us hold on to hope and the promise of tomorrow.” Written passionately in the first person, City of My Heart is a Valentine to Buffalo that reveals as much about the author as it does about this, the city of his heart.
More than 200 beautiful color photos showcase the breadth and diversity of Buffalo’s embarrassment of riches from the vast expanse of parks and gardens, architectural treasures, and the arts and cultural scene, to its proud past and positively brilliant future. It’s a visual celebration of the waterfront, colleges, fairs and festivals, and the amazing spirit of our neighborhoods.The Fine Art of Capturing Buffalo is the perfect gift for family, friends, clients, co-workers, and potential employees.
Rick Azar. For many, this name evokes a wave of wistful nostalgia. A member of the charismatic trio “Irv, Rick and Tom” on WKBW-TV that dominated the Western New York and Southern Ontario airwaves for nearly two decades, Rick Azar tells engaging stories about so many historical beginnings. His tales chronicle the birth of broadcasting, the contentious start of the Sabres and the beginning of the Buffalo Bills. Azar shares fascinating behind-the-scenes encounters with some of the colorful celebrities he interviewed – and, more often than not, befriended – over the decades. Meet Howard Cosell, Jack Kemp, Joe Namath, Ted Williams, Gil Perreault, Wayne Gretzky, Floyd Patterson, Ilio DiPaolo, Jack Nicklaus, Dizzy Gillespie, and so many more. Azar’s journey from Brooklyn to Buffalo, on the stage and on the air, covering sports and offering commentary, is entertaining and insightful. It also reveals much about Buffalo, his beloved hometown.
This illustrated, informative booklet offers a bird’s-eye view of the Pan-American Exposition. Review the grounds which were located between what today are Elmwood and Delaware avenues. See the sights that were seen then, when electricity was a novelty. And hear the sounds of the Pan-Am. A delightful CD of the music of the Pan-American Exposition as it was played by John Philip Sousa in 1901 – on player piano rolls – is tucked inside a colorful back pocket. A great way to experience a momentous event, when Buffalo came to be known as the City of Light.
Stories of the lives, accomplishments, and contributions of four prominent Polish-Americans: Rev. John Pitass, known as the father of Buffalo’s Polonia; Joseph Eustace Fronczak, a prominent Polonian architect; Mother Mary Simplicita Nehring, considered a model of faith in her time; and Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s enduring friendship with Joseph Eustace Fronczak. Together, these compelling stories paint a vivid picture of Buffalo’s Polonian legacy.
A well-preserved creation of America’s most celebrated landscape architect, Point Chautauqua’s 1875 Frederick Law Olmsted design is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among Olmsted’s many works, Point Chautauqua stands alone. Only here did the master find a physical setting that conformed to his aesthetic ideal. Moreover, this was his only design for a religious community. Frederick Law Olmsted’s Point Chautauqua richly exhibits Olmsted’s design principles, making it a perfect example of historic landscape architecture that is also a living, working community, and a rewarding laboratory for students of historic landscape architecture.
With a robust, four-part, 32-page Index by Buffalo History Museum Assistant Librarian Amy Miller and an Introduction to the Second Edition by Buffalo History Museum Research Librarian Cynthia Van Ness, there is finally excellent access to this encyclopedic book’s amazing contents, street by street, family by family. The decades between the Mexican War and the beginning of World War I revolutionized America’s cities. Industrial prosperity produced an astonishing proliferation of capitalists and industrialists positioned to garner a disproportionate share of the profits. These noveau riches erected magnificent mansions, creating aristocratic residential thoroughfares in cities like Chicago, Boston and Buffalo, of which Delaware Avenue was surely among the most magnificent. Classic Delaware Avenue ran two and a quarter miles, from Niagara Square to Chapin – now Gates – Circle. Four generations of inter-Avenue marriages created a closely knit, complicated cousinry. Encyclopedic in scope, Buffalo’s Delaware Avenue: Mansions and Families is an immense book of facts that covers Buffalo’s grandest Avenue. Discover the tales behind these mansions and their illustrious families.
The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra came into existence at the height of the Great Depression. Seventy-five years later, it is an internationally renowned, Grammy-winning Orchestra. The story of this amazing trajectory is told through more than 200 images in a beautiful 120-page coffee table book that celebrates music in Buffalo. Follow the BPO from Lajos Shuk to JoAnne Falleta, and meet many of the world’s greatest musicians. Leonard Bernstein to Lang Lang, Johnny Mathis to the Grateful Dead, the BPO has brought the world of music to Buffalo. On tour, it has brought Buffalo to the world. Special sections showcase the BPO’s home, the acoustically perfect Kleinhans Music Hall, the BPO’s many Carnegie Hall appearances and the hundreds of recordings made over the decades.
Buffalo, New York is known for its remarkable architecture. Masterpieces by world-renowned architects dot the city. From the ground, these structures are impressive. From the sky, they are breathtaking. Soar high over the Queen City via beautiful drone photography and see the city like you’ve never seen it before. From the sweeping grandeur of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery to the immense scalloped walls of Temple Beth Zion, discover Buffalo from A to Z.
The fascinating story of the elusive man who brought steel to Buffalo, harnessed the power of Niagara Falls, and gave Buffalo its most treasured gift: the Albright Art Gallery. To tell this compelling tale required a long and circuitous journey, from small town archives to big city libraries, tracking down Albright descendents in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts to sift through the many layers of mystery which have for so long shrouded this enigmatic man. The result is a beautiful, illustrated biography of industrialist and philanthropist John J. Albright, one which reveals the remarkable story of a man and the turn-of-the-century city in which he lived. Exquisite photographs by Susan Fuller Albright bring to life this extraordinary man and his family.
