Made in Buffalo

How to Research Local Companies
Cynthia Van Ness

Welcome, collectors & researchers! Perhaps you found this page because you own something made in Buffalo, New York. Well, once upon a time we made everything here. Of all the factories listed in the 1950 Buffalo City Directory, I'll bet that maybe 5-10% are still in business today. In most cases, it is possible to find at least a little, sometimes a lot, on defunct local businesses.

The resources needed to research defunct businesses from before the internet era are not online and many might never be digitized. Relevant links have been added wherever possible, but out of necessity, this website focuses on the wealth of offline paper sources. It is best utilized by those who can do in-person research at:

Table of Contents

Buffalo Business History on the Web Now on a separate page!
Most Frequently Asked Question
Essential Research Sources
General Business Research Sites
Further Reading

Most Frequently Asked Question

My frequently asked question by far is "Can you help me find information about XYC Company?" Good news! If there is information to be found about your company, it is out in the world where you can find it. That's the whole purpose of this site. No one must depend on my faulty memory of something I may have once seen or read. If there is no link for your company at the this page, then I cannot tell you anything about your company or offer additional help.

Essential Research Sources
KEY to OWNERSHIP BECHS = Library of the Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society BSC = Butler Library at Buffalo State College BECPL = Grosvenor Room of the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library UB = Arts & Sciences Libraries at the State University of New York at Buffalo
Item	Years Available	Comments	Who Owns It?
Annual Reports	Varies	If the company has publically traded stock, then it must publish an annual report	BECHS BECPL
Buffalo Business File	c.1950-c.1982	This 65-drawer card file is essentially an index to newspaper articles about local companies, industries, nonprofits, commerce, economic conditions, labor issues, etc.	BECPL
Buffalo "souvenir" books	Various years	Many local publishers produced various souvenir and guide books, promoting the scenery, amenities, and advantages of Buffalo. These were often advertiser-supported, with descriptions of local manufacturers and businesses. Several were published to coincide with the Pan-American Exposition of 1901.	BECHS BECPL
Business Directories	Early 19th century to the present	Several publishers, including the former Chamber of Commerce, now known as the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, issued local business directories on an irregular schedule. A business directory might list owners’ names, factory locations, and include product illustrations. Online business directories that include Buffalo are found at the right.	BECHS BECPL Buffalo 1855 Boyd's Business Directory...New York State, 1869-70 Boyd's New York State Business Directory and Gazetteer, 1872
City Directories	1828 to the present, with some gaps	From 1855 forward, Buffalo city directories have a classified business section like the modern yellow pages. Tracing a firm year by year in directories can help establish when it went into and out of business. In some years, the directories give the names of owners and officers of large companies.	Buffalo Online City Directories
Company & Employment Records	Varies	Many business records, including employment records, are retained only for a few years as required by law, then destroyed. But every now and then, a major firm will give its records to a university, historical society, or similar repository. The National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections (NUCMC) might reveal if a business's records survive in a museum or library. This webmaster knows of no surviving employment records for any defunct Buffalo companies.	NUCMC
Incorporation Papers	19th century? to present	The NYS Department of State, Division of Corporations, has an searchable database online of corporations, including nonprofit ones. If you select All names instead of Active Only, you might find when and where an inactive corporation was formed. Incorporation papers are filed with County Clerks.	Corporation & Business Entity Database Erie County Clerk
Library Catalogs	Centuries of books	Search these online catalogs on the name of the business or type of industry. If you find something good and you live too far away to visit the library in person, print out a record of the item and take it to your local library so they can place in interlibrary loan request. Maybe the owning library will send it out for your use.	WNYlibraries.org WorldCat
Newspaper Articles	1811 to present	Our first newspaper, the Buffalo Gazette, began publishing in 1811 but it presently exists only on microfilm. However, the New York Times has digitized every issue from day one (1851) and most of those articles are online for free. They used to pay a lot of attention to Buffalo. Business First of Buffalo began publishing in 1984 and often features business history and has online archives going back to (I think) 1996. FultonHistory.com has a hit-or-miss collection of 19th century upstate NY newspapers, including Buffalo, scanned from microfilm.	Business First of Buffalo FultonHistory.com Google News Archive New York Times
Patents & Trademarks	Varies	Lots of Buffalonians invented things that were manufactured here. Try searches on personal names or machines	US Patent & Trademark Office Google Patent Search
Periodical Articles	Varies	Early periodical indexes are starting to come online. Try searching the name of your company in Poole's. If you find a citation, you can see if your local library owns the journal. If not, you can request a photocopy of the article through interlibrary loan.	Poole's Index, 1882-1887 Poole's Index, 1887-1892
Sanborn Maps	1868 to 1990s	Generally published every 10 years, these large atlases were produced for fire insurance purposes. They diagram every city building and structure in great detail and are superb for studying the physical characteristics of former factories and industrial sites. Local libraries seem to have Sanborns only for the City of Buffalo, not the towns or villages. The exception is the University of Buffalo, which subscribes to the Digital Sanborn Maps, with access to all of New York state.	BECHS BSC BECPL UB
Websites	Varies	My page, Buffalo Business History on the Web, has as many websites about vintage Buffalo businesses as I have been able to find. Not every defunct Buffalo business has inspired a webmaster to document it online. In many cases, no paper trail exists to digitize.	Buffalo, NY Business History on the Web
This table of sources should not be considered exhaustive. It merely reflects what the webmaster has been able to verify at this time.

General Business Research Links

Below are some general websites which may or may not supply anything on Buffalo companies. Keep in mind, though, that we are still in the infancy of internet development and that the vast pre-computer past just isn't online.

Ad*Access is a collection of advertising specimens from 1911 to 1955, possibly including Buffalo companies
Business History Archives, a page with links to some existing archives
Directory of Corporate Archives--maintained by the Society of American Archivists
Emergence of Advertising--a large collection of advertising specimens from 1850 to 1920, possibly including Buffalo companies
Library of Congress Guide to Business History Research
The New York State Archives offers two different pages on how to research labor and business in their collections. See: Rediscovering New York: Business and Research Room: Business & Labor Records
Scripophily.com--included mostly for fun, this website is for collectors of expired stock and bond certificates. Search on Buffalo to see what is currently for sale.
Trade Card Place features 19th century advertising cards, possibly including Buffalo companies
World Wide Web Virtual Library: Labour and Business History--I've barely begun to explore this rich collection of links, so I don't know if there's Buffalo content here or not.