Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Buffalo History Museum is continuing to preserve a historical, Western New York event that occurred one year ago on this very week.
The Buffalo History Museum has obtained a large number of pictures, videos, audio recordings and a few objects donated by the community relating to the 2022 December Blizzard, a blizzard that claimed the lives of 47 people in Erie County and many others in surrounding areas.
"We all as a community in the region lived through some extraordinary days, last December during the Blizzard of 2022," said Brian Hayden, Communications Director at The Buffalo History Museum.
"When the museum staff was able to get out of their homes and reconvene here, it wasn't long after when we got together and [realized that] this was a historic moment in our city and we need to do something to document this, to create a historical record so that future generations can understand what happened here in December of 2022."
Dozens of the submissions are available for viewing online at the Museum’s archival database, found at this link. Many of the preserved images capture extraordinary moments from the storm, from pictures of the group stranded for two days inside the Walden Avenue Target, to photos of snowbanks taller than street signs and snowdrifts blocking doorways.
Hayden tells WBEN that this collection was inspired by the other "once in a generation" blizzard: Blizzard of '77.
What the museum has collected from the Blizzard of '77 includes black and white photos, newspaper clippings and more tangible items, like a board game inspired by the blizzard, which is something that you can't necessarily find or access online.
"That is a storm I did not live through, but those in my family who came before me still talk about to this day, in the way that I'll talk about the Blizzard 22 as long as I live," noted Hayden.
"I think there are similarities to these two collections, but what we now have in terms of multimedia is already so much more than the total amount of photos we have in our collection from '77."
The collection also includes two object donations: a U.S. flag recently donated by County Executive Mark Poloncarz that flew over the county’s emergency operations center in Cheektowaga during the storm, and a candle made by a local candlemaker, Havenpoint Candle Co., inspired by the blizzard.
"Never in my life had I seen a storm that just blasted every corner of buildings with snow so that was something that was just unforgettable," said Hayden.
"I think what was so surreal about that Blizzard was that by New Years, most of that snow had melted, so it already became a memory only a week later. Now we look back and it is absolutely surreal to see what we all experienced together and I think it makes it all the more important to preserve those memories and safekeep it because now you know, there is a historical record that's been created and those Buffalonians who come along after us will will be able to look back and reflect on those days."
The museum is continuing to collect photos and videos via online submission found at www.buffalohistory.org/collecting and and will consider tangible items for a possible exhibit at the museum.
The Blizzard collection is part of the museum’s broader effort to collect from the present day, you can find more information on the museum’s contemporary collecting here.