State University of New York at Buffalo. Music Library

The Pan-American Exposition was held in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1901. The Temple of Music served as the principal venue for music performance on the grounds and was the site of the assassination of President William McKinley on Sept. 6, 1901. The Exposition featured music by bands, solo vocalists and instrumentalists, two orchestras, recitals by more than 70 different organists from the United States, Canada, and Europe, and several types of ethnic music performed at the Midway.

The Music Department of the University at Buffalo truly began to flourish in the late 1950s and early 1960s. With the establishment of the Center of the Creative and Performing Arts in 1964, the Music Department became a major international location for the performance and composition of new music. The Center awarded positions to musicians to come to Buffalo and become Creative Associates of the Center. The Center, including participation by the Creative Associates, University at Buffalo Music Department faculty, and the many visiting musicians who came to Buffalo, was chiefly responsible for Buffalo's reputation during the 1960s and 1970s for being very hospitable to whatever was new in the arts. The department also benefited from two projects funded by local businessman and amateur musician, Frederick Slee: the Slee Beethoven String Quartet Cycle series and the Slee Visiting Professors in Music Theory and Composition. The performances of the Beethoven quartet cycle began in 1955 with performances by the Budapest Quartet and continues to this day. The Slee Professorship attracted several of the most noted composers of the period, including Aaron Copland, Carlos Chavez, David Diamond, Leo Smit, George Rochberg, Ned Rorem, Harrison Birtwistle, Maurisio Kagel, Henri Pousseur, Morton Feldman, Leon Kirchner, and Lejaren Hiller.

The collection was compiled in the Music Library through acquisition by donation and purchase.

The Pan-American Exposition was held in Buffalo, N.Y. in 1901. Music composed for the Exposition was predominantly in the form of popular pieces that drew on the celebrity of the event in order to sell music. For this reason, most of the music is ephermeral in nature, much like other Exposition memorabilia. Music that stands out is that composed by John Philip Sousa and the other band leaders who performed at the Exposition, Thomas Preston Brooke (Chicago Marine Band) and Francesco Fanciulli (71st Regiment Band). Victor Herbert, who conducted the Pittsburgh Orchestra at the Exposition, composed his PanAmericana especially for the Exposition and it reputedly won a gold medal for composition, though no record of any other entrants exists. The assassination of President William McKinley at the Exposition was also memorialized in music. Illustrations include portraits of band leaders and dignitaries, views of Exposition buildings and scenes, and general boosterism for the Exposition and the city of Buffalo.