The Buffalo History Museum Podcast

The Buffalo Six: Jailed for Suffrage

In 1917, six women's suffragists from Buffalo were arrested and sent to Virginia's Occoquan Workhouse for picketing in front of the White House. This is the story of the Buffalo Six.

Highmark Stadium: One Final Goodbye

For over a half-century, Highmark Stadium has been the backdrop to many of our best (and worst) memories. Today we share a history of the beloved gathering place and discuss what's it's meant to Western New York.

When Buffalo Burned

In this episode, we revisit late December 1813, when British forces crossed the Niagara River and set the village of Buffalo ablaze. Through the eyes of frontier doctor and militia leader Cyrenius Chapin, terrified families fleeing into the snow, and survivors like Margaret St. John, we explore the chaos, courage, and cruelty of one of the most defining moments in the city’s history.

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.