History, Natural History & the Arts
The Port of Albany is one of the five Upstate New York State port authorities, established for the economic development and the pursuit of waterborne commerce, in coordination with its host cities and the State. The other four ports are Buffalo, Oswego, Rochester, and Ogdensburg.
Albany, the Capital City of the Empire State has been a center of commerce for eastern New York State and western New England for over four hundred years. [Read more…] about The Port of Albany’s Commercial Importance
Original and deeply researched, The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York: A Cultural, Economic, and Demographic History, 1700–1827 (Cambridge University Press, 2025) provides a new interpretation of Dutch American slavery which challenges many of the traditional assumptions about slavery in New York.
With an emphasis on demography and economics, Michael J. Douma shows that slavery in eighteenth-century New York was mostly rural, heavily Dutch, and generally profitable through the cultivation of wheat. [Read more…] about The Slow Death of Slavery in Dutch New York
The following description is from 1941.
The Port of Albany grain elevator, which is located in the port commission area on the west side of the Hudson River, was constructed by the port commission and is leased for operation to the Cargill Grain Co., Inc.
It is of concrete construction, having a storage capacity of 13,500,000 bushels, and is equipped with facilities for rapid handling. A battery of eight pneumatic marine legs capable of moving 20,000 bushels an hour can be employed in the unloading of a vessel at one time. [Read more…] about The Port of Albany Grain Elevators & Feed Mill
The following description is from 1941.
There are 30 terminal facilities at the Port of Albany, including those on the east side of the Hudson River at and below Rensselaer. These facilities provide a total of 18,661 linear feet of berthing space with depths ranging from 33 to 6 feet at mean low water.
Of this number 10 with a total berthage of 2,948 feet are used for handling petroleum products and five with a berthage of 2,525 feet are used for handling miscellaneous cargo in foreign and domestic trade. Two facilities with 1,370 feet of berthage are used for handling grain, one with 200 feet provides space for the movement of iron and steel scrap, while another with 1,617 feet of berthing space is used exclusively for handling lumber. [Read more…] about Port of Albany: Piers, Wharves and Docks in 1941
The hamlet of Bellona in Yates County, NY, with a population of just over 100 individuals, remains the home of a large stone mill dating to 1828. Standing on the banks of Kashong Creek, from which its stones were quarried, the building was originally a grain mill.
Now, the structure is unused, although a new roof was added within the past few years and has prevented the building from falling into complete disrepair. The site is a rare, intact example of the many stone mills originally found throughout the Finger Lakes region. [Read more…] about 1828 Bellona Mill in Yates County Faces Uncertain Future
Local historian W. Bronson Taylor once observed that the three essentials of the early pioneers of western Saratoga County were “a grist mill, a sawmill, and whiskey still.” While there is little mention of stills, Taylor’s point about the mills is borne out in historical records time and time again.
In the town of Charlton, one of these early mills was built by William Dawson on the Crabb Kill, not far above where it enters the Alplaus Kill. Brought into operation as early as 1785, mills would run on this property for the next 120 years. [Read more…] about Dawson’s: The Alplaus Kill’s Last Mill
With the construction of the Atlantic Basin on Red Hook‘s western shore in the 1840s, Brooklyn became the region’s great bulk goods handling center. The material dredged from the basin provided fill for other areas of Red Hook.
Around 1856, work began on the largest waterfront project in 19th century Brooklyn – Erie Basin, developed by William Beard and two brothers, Jeremiah and George Robinson. [Read more…] about The Erie Basin Project Transformed Red Hook’s Docks
Mark Forsyth’s new book A Short History of Drunkenness: How, Why, Where, and When Humankind Has Gotten Merry from the Stone Age to the Present, (Viking, 2018) traces humankind’s love affair with booze from our primate ancestors through to Prohibition.
Almost every culture on earth has drink, and where there’s drink there’s drunkenness. But in every age and in every place drunkenness is a little bit different. It can be religious, it can be sexual, it can be the duty of kings or the relief of peasants. It can be an offering to the ancestors, or a way of marking the end of a day’s work. [Read more…] about A Short History of Drunkenness
Use your bank’s “bill pay” option (or just send a check)
Thanks for your support! These are difficult times. Without your support we cannot publish the Almanack.
*Donations are not tax deductible.
(Click the X in the top right corner this box to not see this message again for 7 days).