By, Carol Fisher-Linn
Currently, when we think of museums, we might think of the original Albright Knox, its remodel and its new name – Buffalo AKG Art Museum. It is very exciting, indeed. The word ‘museum’ tends to lead one to think of well-known entities like the Lucy/Desi Museum in Jamestown, MOMA in NYC or The Louvre in Paris. And, they indeed do have a story to tell, wilder (and wider) than our imaginations. And that is good – very, very good. Seeing their local and world-renown treasures broadens our perspectives, appreciation, and our knowledge base.
On the flip side, we can wander through the countryside of our various counties and find little, out-of-the-way buildings with signs saying “museum”. Some are well-kept, announcing to their visitors that they are either self-sustaining or very well endowed, while others could use a coat of paint and a few loose boards repaired. Generally, these country museums are either open by appointment or only one or two days a week/month, with luck. Yet, these are the museums you should want to visit and support if you are a member or frequent visitor of a particular community. For example, when you bring your children, you have an opportunity to close the generation gap by sharing your appreciation for the people and accomplishments of the past with them. For members of the community the visit connects them to those who have gone before them on the very same geographic space, and they can perhaps recognize their own stake in the world they have been born into.
Take the Ellicottville Historical Museum, (EHSM) for example. I single this one out because I live in Ellicottville and am most familiar with its affairs. Started in 1956 in the William Laidlaw home, it evolved into the entity we find today in an historic 1853 building on Ellicottville’s four corners, which is on the National Historic Register. Those persons (mainly volunteer) into whose hands the public trust have been given to preserve our history are to be commended. Their selfless efforts continue to protect and display our cultural heritage and add character and distinctness to our community, viewed by many as a recreational town. The museum and its programs offer a look behind the curtain at the lifestyle and events that have shaped the Ellicottville they discover today. There may not yet be a lot of technology available to those wishing to access our local treasures, but an actual trip to the museum by schoolchildren brings a hands-on, or at least, eyes-on actual experience that can’t be replicated. In Ellicottville, the young students are presented with a scavenger hunt within the building, receiving a sticker or candy when completed. It’s a big thing to second graders, and they are learning as they hunt.
This summer the museum is offering Historical Walking Tours throughout the village led by EHSM Vice President, Ellen Siriani Frank. For $10 and about 90 minutes, tourists will learn about our founding fathers and mothers, and the houses they lived in – doctors, lawyers, newspaper owners and a Civil War soldier. Gather at the Gazebo at 1pm on July 22, August 19, and September 16. Contact Ellen Siriani Frank at 716.699.2276 or 716.474.8528 for information or to arrange a private tour of 6 or more persons.
Ellen is also offering ghost tours this fall – Sept. 29, Oct. 13, Oct. 20, and Oct. 27. Guests gather at the Gazebo at 7pm.
Here is the meeting/presenter line-up for this summer. Everyone is invited, there is no fee, (but there are usually yummy snacks), and plenty of chairs to accommodate all. Ellicottville Library, every first Wednesday – Maples Road.
- July 5 -Tina Scherman presents “Love Letters of a Union Soldier”.
“Dear Frant (Francine), I seat myself to commune with you through the medium of the pen…I can hardly realize that I am going to war.” So begins the first letter of Edgar Shannon, who had just joined the 154th New York Volunteers, he wrote to the girl he left behind back home in Leon New York. Come discover if their love story unfolds.
- August 2: Mary Fox “Glimpses of Ellicottville: A Look at Ellicottville’s History Through Pictures”
Mary Fox invites us to see the changes in Ellicottville through her pictorial account.
- September 6: Whitney Stewart “Feldpost: The Wartime Letters of Friedrich Reiner Niemann-A German Soldier on the Eastern Front”. Learn of the experiences of an anti-Nazi German soldier from 1941-1945.
- October 4: Amanda R. Woomer, “Legends, Lore and Ghosts of Ellicottville.”
Amanda Woomer is well-versed in the local folklore and dark history of Western New York, as well as 19th Century Spiritualism and women involved with the paranormal.