Art and Iron
Client: Western New York Heritage
The bustling activity of a once prosperous railroad car wheel business at the foot of Forest Avenue, depicted in the painting above, became the inspiration for the virtual exhibit created in collaboration with Buffalo State’s Museum Studies graduate Exhibit Design & Interpretation class. The painting was donated in the summer of 2020 to Western New York Heritage by Fred Cooley, whose father and grandfather were instrumental in the business’ success. The title of the piece, New York Car Wheel Works 1870, is clearly written at the center bottom. The name of the second well-known Buffalo enterprise, the Matthews-Northrup Company, publishers of the Buffalo Express newspaper and various maps, etchings and lithographs, can be found in the lower left.
Under the guidance of Noelle Wiedemer, graduate students Alexandra Dwyer, Maria Johnson, and Sasha Naples flexed their research muscles as they combed through archives, both digital and in-person. With a widely diverse background in fine arts, museum studies, sociology & anthropology, archaeology, history and animal behavior/ecology & conservation, these students brought their talents and expertise to the forefront as they built a narrative for the three-part virtual exhibit titled “Art and Iron,” showcased on Western New York Heritage’s YouTube channel.
After encountering the difficulties of conducting research during the time of COVID, when much of their research was limited to what can be discovered online, the students quickly came to realize just how many archival records have not yet been digitized.
EXHIBIT LINKS
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Art and Iron: Virtual Exhibit Part 1
Part One of a three-part virtual exhibit, focusing on Buffalo's New York Car Wheel Works and the Matthews Northrup Company.
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Art and Iron: Virtual Exhibit Part 2
Part Two of a three-part virtual exhibit, this installment focuses on the story of the New York Car Wheel Works.
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Art and Iron: Virtual Exhibit Part 3
The final part of of a three-part virtual exhibit, this installment focuses on the story of the Matthews Northrup Company.
PROJECT GALLERY
Click each image to enlarge.
A painting, donated to Western New York Heritage, became the basis for a three-part virtual exhibit uploaded to their YouTube channel.
A detailed image from the painting that hints at a possible narrative for an exhibit. Included are two companies, the New York Car Wheel Works 1870 and The Matthews Northrup Co.
Primary source images from the Library of Congress shows a woman from the New York Car Wheel Works assembly line during WWII. The photographs were taken by Marjory Collins for the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information.
More primary documents in the form of Sanborn Map shows the location of the plant at the foot of Forest Avenue at the Black Rock Harbor.