Aud Time Capsule and More

My reasons for going to the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society Museum (BECHS - much shorter) yesterday were two-fold. I wanted to make sure they still carried a book that I'm going to write a separate post about, and I wanted to see the stuff that was in the 1939 time capsule that had been in the cornerstone of the Aud.

Between those two stops I meandered throughout the museum since it has been a while since I actually took in the exhibits, as opposed to hunkering down in the research section. Truthfully I didn't get much family research done on those forays since I kept getting distracted by the articles in the newspapers on microfilm. They have a lot of material archived there and very helpful people to assist the novices.

They are building section to celebrate 50 years of the Buffalo Bills on the first floor that is incomplete, but they have some nice photographs on display already (picture here is a screenshot from an email). Funny how I can look at the days of old and kn0w exactly who's pictured without a caption, even without noting player numbers, while today's version of the Bills comes across as a type of white noise to me; there, but not there.


I may have wanted to go directly to the Aud stuff, but I managed to look at everything else on the second floor first. There's a large section called "On the Road to Freedom" which documents the Civil Rights movement and struggles in Buffalo. It's not like the suburbs were immune, just more "genteel" at times. From the Circle Association (a history of African Americans in WNY):

"1966a. A Black doctor buys and moves into a house in Buffalo suburb Clarence NY...Within a few days his new neighbors presented him with a petition urging him to leave."

Meanwhile, back at BECHS, the collage features photographs from city streets as well as the campus of UB. The students not only protested against the war but for civil rights.


The Apostle's Clock is still there, still functioning, however it's on the second floor as part of the "Buffalo Made" exhibit.


Finally the Aud stuff. Even though I had been given directions, I actually found it by accident. It's in a small room featuring paintings of ships, opposite the stairs. I tried to take some pictures, especially of the blueprints, but it's hard through the display case. Maybe with a better camera...



One thing I had somewhat disassociated with was the date - 1939. Europe was in a turmoil with WWII starting up which is evident through the partial glimpse of headlines.


The pictures here don't allow you to take in the entirety of the collections. Best advice I can offer is to go see for yourself!