BUFFALO, N.Y. — Waiting 375 years is a long time for anything, but that’s the average time it takes for any one spot on Earth to experience a total solar eclipse.

In New York, the next one will happen on April 8, 2024, only 99 years since our last one.

“[Buffalo] City Hall didn't even exist yet. Mayor Schwab had just been re-elected to a second term. Prohibition was in full effect,” said Cynthia Van Ness, director of library and archives at the Buffalo History Museum.

January 24, 1925 was a different time in New York.

“This is definitely [...] in the middle of the radio boom in America,” said Van Ness.

One thing that didn’t change was the excitement over a rare event.

“Eclipse plunges city into darkness,” read Van Ness from a 1925 newspaper. “Man, that gave a really big typeface.”

It wasn’t the first total solar eclipse the area saw, or tried to see.

“Great Lakes gray ruined the day,” said Van Ness.

Considering the technology though, it’s the best documented one we have — so far.

“Who knew that you could get someone from the Canadian Air Force to fly a plane 9,400 feet up and get a picture for you, but a newspaper pulled that off,” said Van Ness, looking at another news article.

It was a moment that had people pause — at least some of them.

“There's your little human interest story of a clerk in a thrift store at 1770 Main [who] left her purse on the store counter," read Van Ness. "She went to the front door when she came back, somebody had emptied $30 out of her wallet.”

The last time we got close to this kind of eclipse was a partial one back in 2017.

“It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event,” said Holly Schreiber, the chief scientist at the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences. “We saw about 72% of the sun covered that day”

Modern technology changed the way these events are recorded.

“People with drones are gonna send them up over their houses to get pictures for one thing,” Van Ness assumes.

“We are going to be able to experience this collectively with everybody around us at the same time,” added Schreiber.

That means New Yorkers will have much more of their reactions preserved, come April.

“Arguably, this is going to be the best documented Eclipse so far," said Schreiber. "We can look back at it and just experience the wonder again, and share it with future generations.”

The next one won’t come until 2079, and that’s just in the New York City area. In upstate and Western New York, you’ll have to wait an extra 65 years on top of that.

“If you think back to 1925, who would they have thought that we all would have cameras that could record the event? And have that technology to save for future generations," said Schreiber. "So who knows what 2144 is gonna bring.”

One thing’s for sure, April 8, 2024, will go down in history.

“Digital media surviving is dependent on hardware and software surviving," sadi Van Ness. "So if those things do, then there'll be a lot to look at.”