I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
This is a great space to write long text about your company and your services. You can use this space to go into a little more detail about your company. Talk about your team and what services you provide. Tell your visitors the story of how you came up with the idea for your business and what makes you different from your competitors. Make your company stand out and show your visitors who you are.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
This is a great space to write long text about your company and your services. You can use this space to go into a little more detail about your company. Talk about your team and what services you provide. Tell your visitors the story of how you came up with the idea for your business and what makes you different from your competitors. Make your company stand out and show your visitors who you are.
I'm a paragraph. Click here to add your own text and edit me. It’s easy. Just click “Edit Text” or double click me to add your own content and make changes to the font. Feel free to drag and drop me anywhere you like on your page. I’m a great place for you to tell a story and let your users know a little more about you.
This is a great space to write long text about your company and your services. You can use this space to go into a little more detail about your company. Talk about your team and what services you provide. Tell your visitors the story of how you came up with the idea for your business and what makes you different from your competitors. Make your company stand out and show your visitors who you are.
Speaker's Bureau
The Buffalo Presidential Center has assembled a team of expert speakers covering a wide variety of historical and presidential topics. If you would like to schedule someone to visit your group or event, contact the speaker using the linked email from the list below.
© photo by Steven D. Desmond
Speaker: Dr. Linda Czuba Brigance Linda.brigance@fredonia.edu
Professor Emeritus SUNY Fredonia; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center
•The Hands That Rocked the Cradles: Mothers of U.S. Presidents
There have been 45 mothers of U.S. presidents and more if we add in stepmothers. Most of us don’t know much about the women called “mother” by our presidents. Learn the stories of mothers of the five presidents with connections to Western New York: Millard Fillmore, Abraham Lincoln, Grover Cleveland, William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.
Speaker: John Fagant
Author, historian, Explore Buffalo Master Docent, retired chemist; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center
•Buffalo Anti-slavery Party Conventions (1840s)
Court House Park (now Lafayette Square) has been the location for two of the most significant political third-party conventions in the history of American abolitionism. The Liberty Party, followed a few years later by the Free-Soil Party, chose Buffalo to host their dramatic attempts to change forever the pro-slavery dominance of the nation’s politics.
•The End of American Slavery (1860 – 1865)
Although Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not free all the enslaved, its significance will be discussed as well as state abolition, military emancipation and the 13th Amendment.
•Lincoln In Buffalo and Western New York
Based on the book “The Best of the Bargain: Lincoln in Western New York” written by Mr. Fagant. This 40-minute talk discusses Lincoln’s visits to the region in 1848, 1857, 1865 and especially the 1861 inaugural journey through Buffalo.
•Fillmore and the Compromise of 1850
The 13th President, Millard Fillmore, signed and attempted to enforce the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law as part of the Compromise of 1850. He was much maligned in the North for doing so. Let’s review Fillmore’s political career both before and during his presidency and see if the criticism is deserved.
•The Lincoln Funeral Train
An overview of events from March to early April 1865, Lincoln’s assassination and the Funeral Train, as it travels its way to Springfield, Ill., concentrating on its journey from Albany to Buffalo.
•Oswald: Assassin or Patsy?
Was it a lone nut assassin or a conspiracy? This talk will not tell you who did it. But it will review the movements of Lee Harvey Oswald on November 22, 1963, with a special emphasis on the noon lunch hour – arguably the most famous lunch hour in American History.
•Dealey Plaza
Review of events and eyewitness testimony just before, during and immediately after JFK’s assassination in Dallas, November 22, 1963. Discussion on the infamous Grassy Knoll, the Texas School Book Depository and Presidential security also included.
Speaker: Laura Fitzgerald Laurafitz2007@gmail.com
Historian; Director of Operation of Preservation Buffalo Niagara; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center
•Famous Women of Western New York
Many women of power and influence resided in Buffalo. Hear the inspirational stories of important historic heroines like Margaret St. John, Kathleen Howard, and Shirley Chisholm.
•Lincoln’s Legacy in Western New York
Speaker: Rachelle Moyer Francis ramofrancis@aol.com
Author; retired Orchard Park teacher; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center; Curator, Millard Fillmore Presidential Site
•A Chronological and Inefficient Quest American Presidential Homes #1 to #10
Visits to presidential homes, not for the political details, but for human interest stories and surprising observations. This will include an extensive book and media list.
•The Two Wives of Millard Fillmore
Abigail Powers Fillmore and Caroline Carmichael McIntosh Fillmore looked alike, but were very different. Come meet the ladies who flank President Millard Fillmore at Forest Lawn.
•Will the Real Millard Fillmore Please Stand Up?
Three political parties, two different wives, widely conflicting reviews—who really was our most Buffalonian president?
Speaker: Bren Price
Retired Educator; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center; Master Docent, Explore Buffalo
•Presidents in Buffalo: Unusual and Untold Stories
Considering Buffalo’s rich and perhaps unique Presidential history, you will be surprised at how many unusual, unknown, and even weird stories abound. Some may be controversial—others “believe-it-or-not.”
• Abraham Lincoln in Buffalo
Did you know Abraham Lincoln visited Buffalo four times in life and death, and that there were two funerals in Buffalo? You'll be surprised when you hear the details.
•Donkeys and Elephants: Enduring Political Mascots
How in the world did donkeys and elephants evolve into mascots of the Democratic and Republican parties? Can you guess where they first appeared? We’ll journey from the mid-1800s to present day, picturing an array of comic illustrations and funky artifacts used to support or denigrate political candidates.
•Contested Presidential Elections: When Popular Votes Didn’t Matter
You think contested elections are a modern phenomenon? Hear the stories about many contested elections throughout our history.
•Third Party Politics and the American Presidency
How have third parties had an effect on our presidential elections? Buffalo's connections to third party politics is impressive, including the first one!
•Grover and Frances Folsom Cleveland: Their Buffalo Legacies
You will learn many of the "Buffalo myths" surrounding the Clevelands.
Speaker: Patrick F. Ryan
patrick@richardson-olmsted.com
Cultural Coordinator, Richardson Olmsted Campus, Lipsey Architecture Center; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center
•McKinley, Roosevelt, and the Pan-Am
Presidential History in the Queen City: 1789 to 1900
Learn about how the Pan-American Exposition, a world's fair that was intended to be representative of the pinnacle of western civilization, ended in tragedy with the death of President William McKinley.
•Pierce-Arrow: Buffalo's Presidential Car
During the early 1900s, the finest automobiles in the world were brands like Rolls-Royce, Packard, and Cadillac/LaSalle. Did you know, however, that perhaps the most coveted luxury cars of this era were Buffalo's own Pierce-Arrow Motorcars? From the Shah of Iran to President Taft, learn why the wealthy chose to ride in style in a Pierce-Arrow.
•William Morgan: Masons, Murder, and a New Political Party
Learn about one of Buffalo's biggest mysteries that led to the formation of a new political party in the early 1800s: the disappearance of aspiring Freemason William Morgan at Old Fort Niagara.
•Millard Fillmore and the Compromise of 1850
Millard Fillmore is often labeled as an idle president, however, his role in the Compromise of 1850 cannot be understated. Learn how the Whig president and disciple of Henry Clay assisted the Kentuckian push through legislation that helped avert civil war.
•Henry Clay: I Would Rather Be Right, Than Be President
The youngest-ever Speaker of the House, a four-time presidential nominee, and one of American history's most polarizing figures. Learn more about the hard-drinking, horseracing, and oratorical giant who directly influenced American politics for the better part of 50 years.
•The Men Who Were Almost President: Clay, Calhoun, and Webster
A retrospective look at America's Great Triumvirate, three politicians who while they never became president, were major players in every political event from the War of 1812 to the Compromise of 1850. Split across sectional lines, learn about the South's Favorite Son John C. Calhoun, the Star of the West Henry Clay, and the voice of New England Daniel Webster.
•William Wells Brown: Orator, Author, and Abolitionist
Many Americans are familiar with the story of Frederick Douglass: an escaped slave turned anti-slavery icon. Did you know that another man, one who followed a similar trajectory to Douglass, once called the City of Buffalo his home? Learn more about the extraordinary life of William Wells Brown - a former enslaved person turned orator, novelist, playwright, and medical doctor.
•Jacksonian America: A Changing Country
A retrospective look at Jacksonian America, with particular focus on American politics and events from the War of 1812 to the Mexican-American War. Learn more about topics like expansionism, Indian Removal, the bank war, and the rise of political parties.
Speaker: Jeff Schober
Writer; retired educator; co-founder of BuffaloTales.net; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center
Jeff can tailor a talk to adults or children, and is flexible with presidential topics. Here are a few suggested presentations.
•When “Fake News” is true
How President Grover Cleveland covered up
his operation during his second term and maneuvered to discredit the journalist who reported the truth.
•Was the United States justified in using the atomic bomb during World War II?
There are two equally compelling sides to this discussion.
•The many loves of Thomas Jefferson.
From his wife, Martha, who died at 33, to Maria Cosway, the married woman he met in Paris, to the enslaved Sally Hemings, Jefferson’s personal life appears less like an American icon
and more like a flawed man.
•John Tyler: the most interesting president you’ve never talked about.
Our 10th president may have saved the republic, then set about to populate it
almost singlehandedly, with 15 children.
Speaker: Courtney Speckmann Courtney.speckmann@gmail.com
Director of Programs & Community Engagement at Buffalo & Erie County Naval & Military Park; former Director of Education, White House Historical Society; Trustee, Buffalo Presidential Center
•History of the White House