On September 22, 1941, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra perform in Norton Hall for Pep Week. Dorsey’s entourage included a young Frank Sinatra and drummer Buddy Rich.

The event was apparently well attended but received little coverage in the Bee Student newspaper.

Tommy Dorsey, the “sentimental gentleman” and his orchestra were in Buffalo, N.Y. for a week long engagement at Shea’s Buffalo starting on Friday, September 19th. (see “Comes Tommy Dorsey” Buffalo Courier-Express, 19 September 1941)

It’s interesting to note that Sinatra, only in his mid-20’s at the time, was just a “featured” performer and not the main attraction.

Added entertainers for the Shea’s shows included Paul Winchell, “world’s greatest ventriloquist,” and the Condos Brothers, dancing stars.

Both Tommy Dorsey and Frank Sinatra made good use of their time in Buffalo, N.Y. as both made in-store appearances at Rab’s Record Store, located at 1672 Main St, meeting their fans and signing autographs.

COMES TOMMY DORSEY

—

Ace trombonist and band will be
at Buffalo Friday

—

Tommy Dorsey, “the sentimental gentleman,” and his orchestra, with all his radio and stage entertainers including Frank Sinatra, Buddy Rich, Ziggy Elman, Connie Haines and the Pied Pipers, will be seen on the stage at Shea’s Buffalo starting Friday. Added features will be Paul Winchell, “world’s greatest ventriloquist,” and the Condos Brothers, dancing stars. On the screen will be Dr. Kildare’s Wedding Day, with Lew Ayres, Laraine Day, Red Skelton and Lionel Barrymore.

Tommy Dorsey and his orchestra have appeared in many outstanding hotels, theaters and night spots. His fame has been enhanced by several national radio hook-ups. His records especially are in demand. He also is known as one of the greatest of all trombone players.

Among the better known engagements of Dorsey and his orchestra have been the Astor Roof in New York, the Palmer Hotel in Chicago, the Canadian National Exposition in Toronto and the famous Meadowbrook Country Club in New Jersey.

 

— Buffalo Courier-Express, September 17, 1941

Robert De Niro, Sr., House on Ellicott Creek, Buffalo, NY, 1967-79

Please join us for the following events in conjunction with the exhibition Robert De Niro, Sr. and Irving Feldman: Painter and Poet at UB in the Late 1960s (co-curated by Michael Basinski and Sandra Olsen and featuring items from the University Archives and the Poetry Collection) on view at the UB Anderson Gallery from September 11 – October 25, 2015:

Opening reception

Friday, September 11

7:00 – 9:00 pm

UB Anderson Gallery

Poetry reading: Irving Feldman

Thursday, October 8

7:00 pm

UB Anderson Gallery

“Naming is powerful. A name can be a gift or a burden. Choosing or discarding a name can make you feel free. A nickname can make you feel loved or crushed. What people call you shapes how you see yourself, and teaches you how to navigate the world. But the moment you name something, you limit the possibilities of what it can be. Librarians and archivists who catalog and describe collections have the great responsibility of choosing names for things that provoke interest and further understanding. We call this ‘creating access points’ – little lights to guide you, from whichever direction you might approach. But what if the roads were built ages ago and are no longer passable? Or what if they lead in the wrong direction? The limits of language, particularly the specialized, slow-to-evolve jargon of cataloging librarians and archivists, can create more barriers than pathways. Naming a thing with the wrong words can cut off various paths; it can silence necessary questions. In a choose-your-own-adventure text, this would be the part where you would die, have to start over again and opt for a different route next time…”

You can read the full text here.

The Libraries facilitate access to information in many formats, including print and digital collections, maps, music scores, CDs, DVDs and more.

The start of a new semester is the perfect time to share our Top Ten List of “must-knows” about the Libraries.

Ten Things Everyone Should Know About the UB Libraries:

10. Our Libraries have extended hours.
9. Each major has a subject librarian who can help you with your information needs.
8. You can get instant answers from knowledgeable professionals on 24/7 chat.
7. The Libraries have an online guide that explains basic research skills.
6. There are many different group and silent study spaces in the Libraries – choose your favorite.
5. You can use your print quota from your laptop.
4. Lockwood Library is open 24/7 during Fall and Spring semesters.
3. Have journal articles and book chapters delivered electronically, and library books made available for pick-up at the UB library of your choice using Delivery+
2. Undergraduate students are required to complete the Library Skills Workbook during their first year at UB.
1. The UB Libraries are the go-to places to find sources for your research paper or project.

Homer T. Jackson, M.D. (1846-1926), a graduate of UB Medical School, Class of 1881, practiced medicine for many years in the village of Verona, NY during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Dr. Jackson’s handwritten medical treatments and procedures, pharmacologic formularies, medical school class notes, and his notes and reactions to the professional literature of the day have been digitized and added to the UB Libraries’ Digital Collections.

Silver Creek Shakespeare Club Photograph, circa 1890

by Joseph Patton, MLS ’15

The Silver Creek Shakespeare Club was founded in 1889 by Rev. Robert Newton Stubbs in Silver Creek, New York.  The club was founded to, as Rev. Stubbs expressed, “…give what pleasure we can get what benefit we may.”  Becoming a club exclusively for women after 1895, membership was limited to twenty five individuals with specific ballot casting to determine votes.  Members were required to consider all applications to the club.

The club focused on interpretive readings of the texts of William Shakespeare, as well as other figures and elements of English literature.  They generally focused on three to four plays during the year and had about twenty different meetings where discussions took place.  During the meetings there would often be food and entertainment to accompany readings of characters and history within each work.  Additionally, the club would observe specific holidays such as Twelfth Night (the first meeting of January), Shakespeare’s birthday, and the annual picnic that took place around July 4^th.

In addition to their meetings and discussions, the club worked to assist other organizations within the community.  Among the groups they aided were the Red Cross, Crippled Children’s Protestant Home, and the Lee Library in Silver Creek.  The club was still active as of the donation of this collection in 1991.

A portion of the collection has recently been digitized by the University Archives and is available online through the University Libraries’ Digital Collection page.

*This post is part of an occasional series written by University Archives graduate assistants and practicum students.  To prepare students for careers in Special Collections, our graduate assistants survey, process, and describe archival collections, digitize items for online use, and provide reference service to patrons.  These posts allow our students to share their experience and impressions of working with primary source material in the Archives.

YMCA of Buffalo membership card belonging to Max Cohn, Jr., 1905

by Matthew Oliver, DLIS graduate student

Like so many professionals out there, an archivist’s work is never done, and while the YMCA Buffalo Niagara records obtained new and exciting materials, that was only half of the project.  What good is a collection to a researcher if they are unaware of the new materials, added dates, and general rearrangement of records? Thus began my foray into the jungle of the finding aid. The best practice I found was to work in phases, implementing the day’s changes and then print a new paper copy the next day for additional changes. This responsibility was perhaps most crucial to the project, for I was then introduced to ArchivesSpace, the program that Special Collections utilizes to manage and provide access to their finding aids. ArchivesSpace is a relatively new program and not yet widely used by other libraries, archives, or research institutions so I was tasked with editing the EAD finding aid via the Oxygen XML Editor program as well. Perhaps the most difficult task I have yet encountered, XML required editing the raw code of the document. This task acts as a reminder that in this day and age new technologies must be adapted by archival institutions for the purposes of preservation, convenience, and accessibility or risk losing valuable information.

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge what this opportunity has provided for me. Students anywhere, in any major, can be taught from books and lectures, yet I find the most rewarding experience comes from practical application. This internship has allowed me to do that, immersing myself in the field and actively developing my knowledge and skills. I doubt I will find anything more fulfilling and wholeheartedly enjoyable than seeing and touching the little windows of history that this internship has provided me. While the meeting minutes of the Buffalo YMCA’s Railroad Department Management Committee may sound boring, the page described in my earlier post is most certainly not. It tells a story. It tells of a very real man writing that message, with paper and ink over 100 years old. I touched history, regardless of how noteworthy or insignificant. I saw pictures from the 1920s of Transit Road, then a dirt road sprawling for miles flanked by nothing more than a fence, a few trees, and wide expanse of grass, now a thriving hub of traffic and commerce. Think of the change! History is full of stories, no matter how large or small, plain or extravagant, and to be able to have a hand in preserving those stories is a privilege I am grateful for and encourages me to continue the practice. What of the future, Mr. Ebenezer?  More stories.

*This post is part of an occasional series written by University Archives graduate assistants and practicum students.  To prepare students for careers in Special Collections, our graduate assistants survey, process, and describe archival collections, digitize items for online use, and provide reference service to patrons.  These posts allow our students to share their experience and impressions of working with primary source material in the Archives.

UB students can take a break and relax between end-of-semester study sessions during Stress Relief Days on North Campus. We’ll have therapy dogs to meet and pet, free coffee and snacks, and soothing music in the Lockwood Memorial Library.

May 11, 12 & 13:  Lockwood Memorial Library – Staff Lounge, Basement

• Monday, May 11th, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Tuesday, May 12th, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 13th, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.

Hunting Fraser tartan sample

Buffalo lawyer and businessman Thomas B. Lockwood (1873-1947) was one of many successful and wealthy men who built magnificent private libraries. Acquiring his books at auctions, including the famous ones of Robert Hoe and Beverly Chew, and through dealers like George D. Smith and Mitchell Kennerley, Lockwood assembled his library of some 3,000 volumes between 1910 and 1930. This was a very active time for book collectors in America. During the period Henry Folger, Henry E. Huntington and John Pierpont Morgan made massive purchases of printed books and manuscripts, which became the foundations of the research centers they later endowed. In Buffalo, there were also other collectors of importance, such as John L. Clawson and Robert B. Adams, both of whom were friends and neighbors of Lockwood.

Lockwood and his wife Marion Birge Lockwood (1881-1932) gave $500,000 for a library building for the University of Buffalo. He worked closely with Buffalo architect E. B. Green (1855-1950) in the design of the building and was involved with every detail of its construction. Writing in the New York Times on June 23, 1935, Philip Brooks describes the new library as “a beautiful building and a noble monument to book collecting. All that modern architecture could suggest in the way of design and equipment, and that a generous benefactor could provide, has been lavished upon the library in order to make it the last word in institutional luxury.”

Construction of Lockwood Library on South Campus

The original Lockwood Memorial Library (pictured above) was dedicated on May 15, 1935, with remarks made by Christopher Morley (1890-1957), author and editor of the Saturday Review of Literature. “For every institution of higher learning the one perennially indispensable possession is a library,” Chancellor Samuel P. Capen (1878-1956) said in his dedicatory address. “New disciplines may arise and old disciplines totally disappear. The social purposes of universities may be completely altered, as they have been over and over again since universities were first established. But the dependence of a university upon its library does not abate. Books do not become less important as universities open up new intellectual territory and devise new ways of probing the mysteries of nature and of human life. They become ever more important.”

*“From the Stacks” highlights unique, little-known documents and artifacts uncovered by the staff and student assistants who work with the rich historical collections of the University Archives.