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Albany

James Hall: New York’s First State Geologist & Paleontologist

December 12, 2022 by Peter Hess Leave a Comment

James Hall at age 85James Hall was born on September 12, 1811, to James and Susanna Hall of Hingham, Massachusetts. His father was a weaver trained in England who was making a comfortable living. One day he opened his newspaper and noticed a “help wanted” ad posted by a textile mill in Massachusetts. The salary was far better than James Hall, Sr. could earn in England.

After some inquiry, Hall heard that land in America was more cheap and plentiful than land in England, which was, in most cases, held by the same families for generations. He also heard that food was plentiful and less expensive than England. Like so many other Europeans looking to improve their lives, Hall packed up his family and they departed for the United States.

In 1826, when son James Jr. was 15, he learned of a new school, the Rensselaer School (later Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI) just started at Troy, New York by the Patroon of Manor of Rensselaerswyck, Stephen Van Rensselaer III, and under the academic direction of Amos Eaton. This new school was a departure from conventional classical schools that Eaton called “a kind of literary bondage.” Eaton’s new plan was for a scientific school centered on the “useful arts” and “adapted to the native curiosity and ardor of youth.” [Read more…] about James Hall: New York’s First State Geologist & Paleontologist

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Nature Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, Dudley Observatory, East Greenbush, Ebenezer Emmons, Fossils, Geology, Joseph Henry, Louis Agassiz, New York State Museum, Paleontology, Rensselaer County, Rensselaerswijck, Roswell P. Flower, RPI

George Cooke: Albany Snake Oil Salesman

December 5, 2022 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

Patent Medicines (photo by John Warren)In the June 1841 the Albany Evening Journal ran the following notice:

“Dr. Cooke, No. 3 Norton Street, Albany, NY — In every age of the world, men of superior genius have lived: Homer, Voltaire, Euripides and Virgil. It has, however, remained for the 19th century to produce a man whose attainments, both in letters and science, which justly entitles him to equal rank with the illustrious mentioned above. That man is the world-renowned surgeon and physician, Gen. George Cooke whose fame and knowledge of the healing art have reached every clime. [Read more…] about George Cooke: Albany Snake Oil Salesman

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Advertising, Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, Medical History, Newspapers, Patent Medicine, Science History

The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park

November 24, 2022 by Bill Orzell Leave a Comment

Island Park racing notice published in the Troy Daily TimesThe Hudson River in New York’s Capital Region has always been a vital transportation link, and it also provides a conduit to undertakings of the past. The area presently occupied by Interstate-787 and its connectors to NY-378 were constructed on what had been a cluster of islands in the Hudson River, near Menands, between Albany and Watervliet.

Even in the 1820s, the road here became noted for unofficial, and illegal, horse racing. [Read more…] about The Capitol Region’s Race Course: Island Park

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Erastus Corning, Gambling, Historic Racetracks Series, Horses, Hudson River, Menands, Sports History, Vice, Watervliet

An Albany Gravestone Goes Home

November 22, 2022 by Guest Contributor Leave a Comment

Mary McConnell gravestone being movedOn August 25th, 1823, Mary McConnell, wife of Teunis Vandeveer, died at the age of 28. Her body was laid to rest in the Second Presbyterian Church’s lot at the State Street Burying Grounds in Albany, NY. Laid to rest until 1868, that is.

When the City closed the old Burying Grounds to make way for Washington Park to be developed, her grave was one of 14,000 transferred to the Albany Rural Cemetery, which had been established in 1844.

Her headstone did not make the journey with her coffin until last fall. [Read more…] about An Albany Gravestone Goes Home

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, Cemeteries, Roscoe Conkling

Finding Lola: An Albany Great Grandmother Who Passed As White

November 15, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Finding LolaDanielle Romero was born in Albany, NY, where her family was raised believing they were were of Irish and French descent. Through many twists and turns she came to find her hidden heritage in Louisiana. [Read more…] about Finding Lola: An Albany Great Grandmother Who Passed As White

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Black History, Documentary, Genealogy

Albany’s Squire Whipple: Father of the Iron Truss Bridge

November 8, 2022 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

Squire WhippleSquire Whipple was born in Hartwick, Massachusetts on September 16th, 1804. His parents were James and Electa Whipple. Born and raised on a farm, he attended a small country school for three or four months a year. He moved to New York in 1817.

By the age of seventeen, he passed the required examination for common school teaching and taught part time to finance his education. In 1822-1828 he attended Hartwick College in Otsego County; Fairfield Academy in Herkimer County; and graduated from Union College, Schenectady in 1830. He spent the next few years working as a surveyor for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and married Anna Case. [Read more…] about Albany’s Squire Whipple: Father of the Iron Truss Bridge

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Albany Rural Cemetery, Engineering History, Erie Canal, Erie Railroad, Industrial History, Iron Industry, railroads, Transportation History, Union College

From New York To Albany By Hudson River Sloop In 1800

October 30, 2022 by Guest Contributor 2 Comments

The Hudson at Tappan Zee by Francis SilvaThe following travelogue, taken from “Visit to the Falls of Niagara in 1800,” was originally published in London in 1826 by John Maude. It was transcribed by Hudson River Maritime Museum volunteer researcher George A. Thompson and additionally edited and annotated by John Warren. [Read more…] about From New York To Albany By Hudson River Sloop In 1800

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, Hudson Valley - Catskills, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Catskill, Columbia County, Dutchess County, Greene County, Hudson, Hudson River, Maritime History, New York City, Orange County, Putnam County, Rockland County, Transportation History, Ulster County, Westchester County

Albany’s Harmanus Bleecker, 19th Century Ambassador to The Netherlands

October 11, 2022 by Peter Hess 1 Comment

View of New Amsterdam by Johannes Vingboons, ca. 1665In 1658, 17-year-old Jan Janse Bleecker set sail from Mappel, Overyssel in the Netherlands for Nieuw Amsterdam (now New York City) in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. He knew that Dutch traders had established a trading post there about 45 years earlier.

In 1629, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer, a partner in the Dutch West India Company, had obtained rights to establish a settlement and control the fur trade at Fort Orange located about 150 miles north of New Amsterdam. [Read more…] about Albany’s Harmanus Bleecker, 19th Century Ambassador to The Netherlands

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Christmas, Dutch History, fur trade, Haudenosaunee, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Legal History, Martin Van Buren, Mohawk, New Netherland, New York City, Political History

Albany’s Historic Cherry Hill to Redesign Museum’s Core Tour

September 23, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Minnie Knapp c 1880Historic Cherry Hill in Albany‘s South End has announced that the museum has received two competitive federal planning grants for a large, multi-year reinterpretation project.

Entitled We Carry It Within Us: Reinterpretation at Historic Cherry Hill, the project was awarded $48,165 from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and a $50,000 Inspire! Grant for Small Museums from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

With these grants, Historic Cherry Hill is now expected to complete plans for a new tour and orientation exhibit which incorporates new research and scholarship on underrepresented narratives at Cherry Hill. [Read more…] about Albany’s Historic Cherry Hill to Redesign Museum’s Core Tour

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Black History, diversity, Grants, Historic Cherry Hill, Public History

Joseph Brant’s Face: A State Capitol Mystery

September 8, 2022 by David Fiske 8 Comments

Portrait of John Francis BrinesA recent article in the Albany Times Union, “The Enduring Mystery of a Mohawk Warrior Bust at the Capitol,” (online edition, July 22, 2022) noted that there is a sculpted face of Joseph Brant on the exterior of the State Capitol building in Albany, New York.

Researched and written by journalist Chris Carola, it questions why Brant, a Native American who supported the British during the American Revolution – and who wreaked havoc on a number of white settlements – was honored by having his visage on such a prominent edifice. [Read more…] about Joseph Brant’s Face: A State Capitol Mystery

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, American Revolution, Architecture, Cultural History, Henry Hudson, Indigenous History, Joseph Brant, Oswego, Political History, Rhode Island, sculpture

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