The Grosvenor Room, the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s Special Collections Department, will present a speaker series with Explore Buffalo in 2025.
This free speaker series will take place in the Ring of Knowledge in the Central Library in downtown Buffalo at 1 Lafayette Square. Admission is free and no registration is required. All presentations will begin at 1pm and be approximately one hour in length, including time for Questions & Answers.
Learn more about the Grosvenor Room and the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s Special Collections here.
2025 Series Dates:
The Burchfield-Penney Art Center: The First “Green” Art Museum in New York State
Saturday, May 3, 2025
The BPAC for over 50 years has been known as the Museum for Western New York Arts. In this talk we will briefly review the history of this art center, then discuss the building design by Gwathmey Siegel and Associates. We’ll illustrate how the architectural structure has distinctive features reflecting artist Charles E. Burchfield’s love of nature. We’ll also explore how the building design serves the BPAC’s diverse programming to provide artists, students, scholars, collectors, and the general public with opportunities to learn and exchange ideas about the cultural legacy of the region.
Saturday, June 14, 2025
Buffalo’s population grew tremendously with the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. Quite surprisingly, because a few years before, Buffalo did not even have a harbor, and 2 private citizens, including one early Mayor, Samuel Wilkeson, had to risk his own capital to convince the NYS Legislature to extend the Canal past the Village of Black Rock. This talk will discuss the activities with the early Canal, and the development of Buffalo, for a time, as the number one grain handling port and flour milling capital of the World. The talk will also cover ongoing redevelopment efforts in the area now known as Silo City.
Saturday, August 16, 2025
Today, Larkinville is a revitalized neighborhood that boasts of successful businesses, a vibrant arts scene and, of course, food truck Tuesdays. The area has arisen from the neglect of the late 20th Century and in many ways represents the re-birth of 21st Century Buffalo. Many people, however, know very little about the namesake Larkin Soap Company, which was one of Buffalo’s major employers 100 years ago. When one thinks of large corporations in the early 20th Century, images of over-worked and under-paid women and children working in dangerous sweat-shops comes to mind. While this period became known as the Progressive Era in American history, most large businesses were very slow to improve the working conditions for the average worker. The Larkin Soap Company was a leader in changing the work place environment by placing an emphasis on the overall well-being of their employees. They created an environment where all of the “Larkinites,” which included not only the employees but also management and their customers, were treated with respect creating a very dedicated and loyal organization. This talk will look at the policies and benefits that were instituted by the Larkin Soap Company that not only improved the lives of their employees but also the lives of the citizens of Buffalo.
Saturday, October 11, 2025
Many Buffalonians are familiar with Lily Dale, but fewer of us know that spiritualism actually has a long and rich history in Western New York. Join us for this interesting talk which will introduce the concept of spiritualism and its development in the United States before delving into its history here in WNY. You’ll learn about famous locals such as the Fox sisters and the Davenport brothers, along with others who influenced the practice of spiritualism in this area. The talk will include information about Lily dale and its place as the center of spiritualism in the United States, as well as various other local places where spiritualist events have occurred. Finally, we’ll discuss where spiritualism fits in with today’s social fabric.
A Night Out on the Town
Saturday, November 8, 2025
This talk revives the exciting history of the entertainment community in Buffalo. Are you a movie buff? We will talk about the variety of theatres that would have shown everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Cary Grant to the original Star Wars. Is music more you speed? We will help you imagine where you would have sat to listen to the likes of Sinatra, Elvis, the Stones, and the Goo Goo Dolls. From vaudeville to live stage productions, Buffalo has been home to wondrous theatres and other venues which are no longer physically with us but, through this talk, can once again be part of our collective memory.
Presented by:
