The Buffalo History Museum Podcast

12/08/80 (In the Name of Love)

On December 8, 1980, as U2 played to a sparse crowd outside Buffalo, the world was upended by the murder of John Lennon, transforming an ordinary night into a defining moment in music and cultural history.

Thank you to Jeff Miers, WKBW, Willie Nile, and Billy Sheehan for providing audio and other assistance on this very special episode. The audio of Bruce Moser is taken from an interview done by WKBW in 2017. Sadly, Moser passed away in 2020. 

Ely S. Parker and the Impact of the Erie Canal

Ely S. Parker was a Tonawanda Seneca leader, engineer, Civil War officer, and later U.S. Commissioner of Indian Affairs—and his story begins in the shadow of the Erie Canal. While the canal is often celebrated as a triumph of American innovation, we explore its deeper impact as a force of dispossession that carved through Haudenosaunee homelands and helped shape Parker’s lifelong fight for Indigenous land, rights, and sovereignty. We conclude in the present day, with Parker’s posthumous admission to the New York State Bar in 2025, a historic act of recognition 176 years after he was first denied that right.

The Dead Have Never Died

Edward Caleb Randall was a highly-respected lawyer from Buffalo. In 1892, his life would change forever. That's when he met Mrs. Emily S. French, a psychic medium from nearby Rochester, New York. 

The Toughest Miles: Irish Laborers and the Erie Canal

The Erie Canal was an engineering marvel that shaped our city, state, and nation. Digging the man-made waterway not only required innovation, but also the efforts of thousands of laborers, man of them Irish immigrants. This is a story of the excavation of the canal's most challenging sections and how the Irish played a vital role. 

(EXPLICIT LANGUAGE) The Tulsa Riot and Massacre, a Poem by Andrew J. Smitherman

After fleeing from Tulsa in 1921, Andrew Smitherman made his way to Boston before later settling in Buffalo. While in Boston, he penned a poem describing his experiences during the Tulsa Race Massacre. Reading the poem is Jillian Hanesworth, Buffalo's Poet Laureate Emeritus. This episode is being published in conjunction with the previous episode titled, And a Shot Rang Out: Andrew Smitherman and the Buffalo Star. 

And a Shot Rang Out: Andrew Smitherman and the Buffalo Star

In late May of 1921, racial tensions erupted in Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood District in what would become known as the Tulsa Race Massacre. Among the leaders of Tulsa's Black community was Andrew J. Smitherman, publisher of the Tulsa Star newspaper. After being charged with inciting the riot, Smitherman fled north and settled in Buffalo. There, he started a new newspaper, the Buffalo Star. This is the story of his involvement in the Tulsa Massacre and his impact on the Buffalo community. 

Shirley Chisholm: Unbought and Unbossed

In 1968, Shirley Chisholm became the first Black woman elected to serve in Congress, representing New York’s 12th District. Four years later, she became the first woman and first Black candidate to seek a major party’s presidential nomination. Following her career in politics, Shirley moved to Buffalo with her husband, State Legislator Arthur Hardwick. She's buried in the city's historic Forest Lawn Cemetery where a new statue in her honor is soon to be unveiled.

Jenny Lind and the Canal District Fire

In September 1850, Swedish opera star Jenny Lind began an 18-month tour of American cities promoted by P.T. Barnum. The tour brought her to Buffalo four times in 1851, but one of the performances was special. It was a fundraiser, bringing relief to victims of a fire in the city’s Canal District. This is the story of Lind’s American tour, her visits to Buffalo, and the 1851 Canal District fire.

 

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**The Echo Song, as heard in the podcast is performed by Swedish soprano Elisabeth Söderström. As stated in the episode, there are no known surviving recordings of Jenny Lind. 

The Silent Bells of Buffalo

In the 1860s, Buffalo Bishop John Timon commissioned a 43-bell carillon for the city's St. Joseph's Cathedral. The bells, however, would run into a series of problems which prevented them from being heard for more than a half century--and then for nearly another century after that. This is the story of the bells, their unlucky journey, and their eventual installation at Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery. 

Wedding of the Waters: The Opening of the Erie Canal

October 26, 1825 marked the ceremonial opening of the Erie Canal, a waterway that would shape the future of the nation. To celebrate, Governor DeWitt Clinton led a cross-state procession, stopping in each town along the man-made waterway.