The University Archives, established in 1964 by President Clifford C. Furnas, serves as the repository for both the historically valuable records of the State University of New York at Buffalo and its predecessor, the University of Buffalo (1846-1962), as well as significant historical collections documenting Western New York's regional heritage. The holdings of the Archives chronicle not only the University's evolution from a small medical school in 1846 to today's comprehensive public university, but also preserve the rich history of Buffalo and the surrounding region through extensive materials from local organizations, notable individuals, and significant regional developments.
Spanning over 16,000 linear feet, the University Archives collects, organizes and maintains the records of UB academic departments and administrative offices, along with all university and student publications. Private papers of administrators, faculty members and other individuals associated with UB are also collected by the University Archives, registering the many changes in higher education over 175 years of the University’s history. Campus-related research areas include the founding of the State University of New York at Buffalo and its predecessor, the University of Buffalo (1846-1962), campus development, student experience, and departmental histories.
In addition to records and papers of the University at Buffalo, the University Archives houses over 250 historical collections on regional and national organizations, topics, events, and individuals of interest. Research strengths include: architecture and design, African-American history, environment and sustainability, women’s history, and Buffalo history generally. Collections reflect and support faculty research, provide students with research-grounded educational experiences, and deepen engagement with the regional community.
The University Archives is the repository of the historically valuable records of the State University of New York at Buffalo and its predecessor, the University of Buffalo (1846-1962). The holdings of the Archives document the growth of the University from a small medical school in 1846 to the large, comprehensive public university that it is today.
The University Archives was established by President Clifford C. Furnas in 1964. The university was experiencing a time of dramatic change having merged with the State University of New York in 1962, and Furnas felt the need to ensure the preservation of the university’s history.
Ruth Simmons was the first University Archivist, serving in that capacity from 1964-1967. Simmons worked to establish procedures for obtaining university records. She corresponded with administrators, faculty and staff of the university asking for their administrative records and personal papers. Simmons also met with people individually to convince them of the importance of the University Archives. Simmons created an organizational structure for university records that mirrored the university's administrative structure.
The University Archives’ first collections were donated by those whom Shonnie Finnegan (University Archivist 1967-1995) referred to as “proto archivists.” Emily Webster, assistant vice president for business affairs, who also served as associate archivist; Dorothy Haas, director of student activities; Emma Deters, university registrar; and Ruth Bartholomew, head librarian, were all long-serving administrators and staff who kept impeccable records, collected university periodicals and other ephemeral materials, and turned them over to the University Archives.
The University Archives moved frequently during its first four years. It was first housed in Diefendorf Hall (1964-1965) before relocating to Harriman Hall (1965-1966). There, staff had offices in the Harriman Library and the collections were stored on a renovated theatre balcony. In 1966, the University Archives moved to a building located off-campus at 3423 Bailey Avenue.
Marchand “Shonnie” Finnegan (University Archivist 1967-1995) began working in the University Archives as an assistant to Ruth Simmons. When Simmons left UB for Ohio State University, Shonnie stepped into her position. During her tenure, the University Archives grew from one small room in Lockwood Library (now Abbott Hall) to over 7,000 linear feet of documents, periodicals, photos, memorabilia and other materials.
Finnegan continued Ruth Simmons’ work in gaining the university community’s confidence and trust that their records would be safely preserved, knowing that doing so would help secure more donations. She was proactive in suggesting uses for the materials and created indexes and finding aids to help researchers access information found in University Archives collections.
Shonnie Finnegan expanded the University Archives’ collections beyond the administrative records of the university. She believed that materials related to student life and other university ephemera helped build a picture of campus culture. Shonnie was well known for exploring the campus and gathering up student periodicals, flyers, posters and in one instance, a teargas canister that was fired on student protesters in the spring of 1970.
Finnegan also began collecting non-university records in the areas of local women’s history, architecture and design, civil rights and social justice. These include collections related to Darwin D. Martin and Frank Lloyd Wright, the desegregation of the Buffalo Schools and Love Canal.
Shonnie Finnegan oversaw two major moves for the University Archives. First, during the 1970/71 academic year, the University Archives was relocated to the Darwin D. Martin House which had been purchased by the university as the President’s Residence for Martin Meyerson. While in the Martin House, the University Archives’ collections were stored in the basement and researchers accessed collections in a reading room that was Darwin D. Martin’s former living room. The University Archives was moved again early in 1977 when its new home on the fourth floor of the new Capen Hall became ready. At the farewell reception for Christopher Densmore in 2001, Finnegan recalled that the last moving truck had gotten stuck in the snow on the North Campus and had to sit unloaded throughout the Blizzard of ‘77.
In 1995, Shonnie Finnegan retired as University Archivist. She continued to work part-time in the University Archives until 1997 in order to complete projects related to the 150th anniversary of the founding of UB. Upon Finnegan’s retirement, Christopher Densmore, who had worked in the University Archives since 1974, was named acting director. He was promoted to University Archivist in 1998 but would leave UB in 2001 for a position at Swarthmore College. While the University Libraries searched for a new University Archivist, archival assistants Rodney Obien, Kathleen Delaney and Daniel Dilandro acted as caretakers for the University Archives.
In 2003, after a number of failed searches, John Edens, director of University Libraries Central Technical Services (CTS), was asked to take on the additional role of Interim University Archivist. This dual role was key to moving the University Archives into the Digital Age and dramatically increasing the discoverability of its collections.
Prior to 2003, collections were recorded in a Cardex card filing system, accessible only by archives staff. Through Edens, MARC records for every collection in the University Archives were created in the University Libraries online catalog by CTS staff. Shortly thereafter, the University Archives began creating digital finding aids for its collections using Encoded Archival Description (EAD). These EAD finding aids were then posted on the University Archives’ website making them accessible world-wide via the Internet.
Under John Edens, the first large-scale digitization of University Archives collections took place. These include all of the photographs from the Darwin D. Martin and Frank Lloyd Wright collections, a large selection of photographs from the Love Canal Collections, the student newspapers and a large portion of the university yearbooks.
John Edens’ supervision of the University Libraries Preservation Department would also prove important for Special Collections as a whole. Preservation staff became key partners in the creation of large-scale exhibits and created a multitude of enclosures for items in the Rare Books collection and University Archives.
Throughout his tenure, Edens took steps to help alleviate the University Archives’ space shortage. Off-site storage of both unprocessed and low use processed collections was arranged for both within the university and with a private storage company.
In 2010, “interim” was dropped from his title and John Edens became University Archivist. When he retired in 2012, William Offhaus, who also began working in the University Archives in 2003, acted as caretaker while the search for a new University Archivist took place.
Amy Vilz served as University Archivist from 2013-2021. Throughout her term as University Archivist, Vilz strongly felt that University Archives staff should create and maintain documentation of their decision-making and activities thereby creating a record for future archivists. To this end, she created internal procedures and guidelines for the intake of new collections, the creation of finding aids, the addition of information to databases and more.
These procedures and guidelines had the added benefit of allowing staff to step in and help with tasks outside of their normal duties when needed.
Under Amy Vilz, University Archives began using ArchivesSpace as an archives management tool. Donation records and EAD finding aids could be created and tracked using ArchivesSpace. Previously digitized finding aids were added to the system and the print finding aids to highly used older collections were converted to digital finding aids.
During Amy Vilz’s tenure as University Archivist, digitization and digital collections continued to gain importance. She sought out and received funding to digitize the University Archives’ large collections of film and reel-to-reel audio tapes. Digitization of both collections was crucial as both the film and magnetic tapes had begun to degrade past the point of usability.
Throughout the 2010’s an increasing amount of born-digital and print/digital hybrid collections were added to the University Archives. To help manage this influx, the Digital Archivist for Special Collections position was created and Preservica was selected as a Digital Archives Management program. Widely accepted archival standards began to be used for all items digitized by the University Archives. A file naming convention was created for all digitized items that included information about the digitized item’s collection of origin. The combination of these procedures reduced the need to digitize the same material multiple times and made digitized items easily findable.
In 2020, Amy Vilz guided the University Archives through the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. She ensured that staff were equipped to work from home and that they had projects that could be completed digitally. When reference staff began to return to campus part-time during the height of the pandemic, Vilz stressed personal safety should be their top priority.
Sadly, Amy Vilz died of cancer on March 4, 2021. With her passing, Archivist for Special Collections Marie Elia, and Digital Archivist for Special Collections Sarah Cogley were named Interim Co-University Archivists. Their positions were not like those of the caretakers the University Archives had seen during past leadership transitions. Instead, Cogley and Elia would conceive and carry out their own initiatives and work to complete those begun by Amy Vilz.
During the final stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarah Cogley and Marie Elia managed the safe return of University Archives staff to campus. They also collaborated with leadership from the Poetry Collection and University Libraries Administration with post-pandemic changes to operations in the Special Collections Reading Room.
Firstly, the Reading Room’s operating hours were reduced from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This allowed staff more flexibility at the beginning and end of the day and was especially helpful with the return of materials as the Reading Room closed. Elia and Cogley also collaborated with the hiring of two new Special Collections positions. A Digital Archives Technician was hired to help manage digital collections for all of Special Collections and the hiring of Special Collections Assistant Lynn Lasota as the first full-time service desk attendant brought much needed consistency to the Reading Room that was not possible with Work Study student desk attendants.
Just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Amy Vilz began discussions with the Graycilff Conservancy about a collection of materials on deposit in the University Archives. It was Vilz’s hope that the Conservancy would formally donate the collection to the University Archives. Under Sarah Cogley and Marie Elia, these discussions not only continued but expanded to include the possible donation of a significant amount of additional materials and artifacts.
Marie Elia and Sarah Cogley also initiated further integration of University Archives operations with ArchivesSpace. Inventory control of all University Archives collections, both digital and print, would be managed with ArchivesSpace.
In February 2023, Hope Dunbar was chosen to succeed Amy Vilz as University Archivist.