Ethnic Erie Project
The Ethnic Erie Project is a five to ten year project initiated by ECHS in 2003, which is designed to celebrate the multi-layered ethnic heritage of the Erie community. Each year a different ethnic group is selected and asked to participate in the project through the development of a unique exhibit chronicling their journey to and involvement in the Erie community.
The collections presented by each ethnic group include artifacts, photographs and documents belonging to immigrants who came to Erie County in the 19th and 20th centuries. These objects and archival materials tell the stories of their experiences and chronicle the significant contributions they made to Erie County.
Each Ethnic Erie Project has a life of three months, and includes an exhibit; invitation-only opening and closing receptions for sponsors, lenders and volunteers; an opening day festival; and a full calendar of events featuring classes, lectures, workshops, cooking demonstrations, art classes, movies and holiday celebrations. The Society has completed projects celebrating the Italian, Irish, Polish, German and Nordic communities of Erie.
Historical Society Announces the 6th Ethnic Erie Exhibit
The African American Experience
Opening at the Watson-Curtze Mansion in February 2009
The project coordinating committee, which includes Adrianne Rush, Annette Franklin, Johnny Johnson, Caroline Reichel, Robert Perry, Dr. Ellie Walsh, Sarah Thompson, and Treye Johnson, is currently collecting oral histories, family photographs, heirlooms and other objects to present a comprehensive history of Erie’s African American community…
PEOPLE…servicemen and women, artists, athletes, professionals, entrepreneurs and entertainers
PLACES…churches, clubs, organizations and businesses
EVENTS…Underground Railroad and the Civil Rights Movement
The program is supported (research, artifacts, volunteers, etc.) in part by the Harry T. Burleigh Society, International Institute, Gannon University History Department and the Northwestern Pennsylvania Freedom Institute, and is the first phase in the Society’s Uncrowned Community Builders affiliation.
The Uncrowned Community Builders (UCB) network is a project initiated by the Uncrowned Queens Institute for Research and Education on Women, which is an institution supported by the University of Buffalo. The Institute collects and preserves the individual and collective histories of African American community builders for future generations. Since the project inception more than ten years ago, over four hundred African American women from western New York have been documented. The majority of these submissions were written and recorded by the public — by mothers, daughters, nieces and friends who wished to recognize the African American everywoman.
The Erie County Historical Society is the first UCB Affiliate Member in the state of Pennsylvania. As an affiliate, the Society will begin to gather stories from the community this summer. Annette Franklin and Dr. Ellie Walsh are working with Society staff to schedule presentations throughout the community. In October, we will debut a public documentation center where any visitor can generate a written or oral history entry for the UCB network Arrangements have been made to unveil the Society’s UCB documentation center during the February exhibit opening festival by Uncrowned Queens Institute founders Peggy Brooks-Bertram and Barbara A. Seals Nevergold, and representatives from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. To learn more go to http://wings.buffalo.edu/uncrownedqueens/.
The project committee and the Society look forward to documenting the African American community of Erie.