The Grosvenor Room, the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library’s Special Collections Department, will present a speaker series with Explore Buffalo in 2024.

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 2pm 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. 

2024 Series Dates:

Half a Century of Working Women
Saturday, March 23 at 2pm
From Irish immigrants arriving on “coffin” ships to Rosie the Riveter building war planes, women have helped shape our city and beyond. Whether managing the world’s largest box company or running a nightclub on Michigan Avenue, Buffalo women have not shied away from hard work and entrepreneurship. We’ll look at the period from 1900 to 1950 to meet some of these amazing women.

In this compare-and-contrast presentation, see what the sites of some of your favorite
Buffalo buildings looked like one hundred years ago! This presentation will show what various locations around the Queen City looked like in 1918, juxtaposed with their 2023 appearance. You’ll be surprised by how much the city has in some ways changed, and in some ways remained the same!