History, Natural History & the Arts
Yankee Doodle went to town
A-riding on a pony,
Stuck a feather in his cap
And called it macaroni.
Macaroni Craze
During the third quarter of the eighteenth century, Londoners saw the bizarre spectacle of the so-called “macaroni craze.” Young aristocratic men who had returned home from their educational Grand Tour through Continental Europe to Italy, displayed a liking for pasta. [Read more…] about The Dutch & Flemish Roots of Yankee Doodle Dandy
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
This article was original published in the July 6, 1867 Scientific American.
Our engraving [presented here] represents this structure [the Livingston Avenue Railroad Bridge in Albany] as it appeared in March, 1866, which was shortly after its completion. [Read more…] about Albany’s Livingston Avenue Railroad Bridge: Some History & Future Plans
On September 10, 1881, two National League baseball teams, the Troy Trojans and the Worcester Worcesters, played against each other on Broadway in the city of Rensselaer, NY.
In the ninth inning bases were loaded. Troy Trojan Roger Connor stepped up to the plate and hit the first grand slam. An article from the September 12, 1881 Albany Morning Express described the game and Connor’s historic hit: [Read more…] about 1881: Major League Baseball’s First Grand Slam
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 following description is from 1941.
The Port of Albany is situated in the eastern part of New York State about six miles below the head of tidewater on the Hudson River and about 143 miles north of the Battery New York City. The port district as legally established embraces the city of Albany and the lands belonging to the city of Albany within the town of Bethlehem, the city of Rensselaer, and all lands and waters in the Hudson River contiguous thereto.
The district is an important rail center from which railroad lines radiate in all directions. It is only a short distance approximately six miles south of the eastern and southern termini of the Erie and Champlain branches of the New York State Barge Canal system. [Read more…] about Navigating the Port of Albany in 1941
What follows is an article published in the Sydney Morning Herald of New South Wales, Australia on January 23, 1852. Chartered in 1846, the Hudson River Railroad was built to connect the Troy and Greenbush Railroad with the city of New York.
On Wednesday, [October 3, 1851] the ceremony took place of opening the Hudson River Railroad, in its entire length from New York to Albany. Hitherto the portion of the road between Poughkeepsie and Tivoli [in Dutchess County] (twenty-six miles) was not in operation, and the passengers were conveyed in a steamboat between those two points. Last week the road was completed, and the cars ran over it privately. Last week it was [also] publicly opened, by running two excursion trains each way and returning. [Read more…] about 1851: The Opening of the Hudson River Railroad
Just before 11:00 o’clock on April 25, 1865, mourners waiting at the East Albany Station (in Rensselaer, NY) heard the sound of a train emanating out of the darkness to the south along the Hudson Valley. All doubt was soon removed by “the whistle of the locomotive, announcing the approach of all that was mortal of the martyred dead.” Further confirmation was added by the boom of artillery.
By order of Albany Mayor Eli Perry, a minute gun was to commence a measured fire from the moment of the train’s arrival until the President Lincoln’s casket was placed in the capitol building. Commanded by Captain Harris Parr, the battery performed exactly as directed. [Read more…] about Abraham Lincoln’s Funeral Train in Albany
It was swinging in the Tally-Ho Club on Hudson Avenue and in the Lark Tavern on Madison. Music filled the Klub Eagle and poured out the doors of the Castle Ballroom. The Rhythm Club on Madison was rocking. Sophisticated sounds were swaying in the hotels – at the Ten Eyck and the DeWitt. As the Swing Era crested between 1935 and 1945 New York City was its beating heart, but cities around the country featured home-grown bands of their own.
The greater Capital District, especially Albany, featured a rich and vibrant swing music scene. [Read more…] about The Swing Era in the Capital District
In settlements along the Hudson River Valley and in Albany on the hill where the New York State Capitol sits today, enslaved and free African descendants once gathered with family and friends to celebrate Pinkster. [Read more…] about Pinkster: How A Dutch Holiday Became an African-American Cultural Celebration
In August 1814, Capt. Opie of the 5th Regiment of U.S. Infantry placed a bounty in the Plattsburgh Republican offering a $200 reward for the return of four deserters, including Simeon Ford, who was accused of deserting for the third time.
Ford was described as 24 years of age, 5-feet-7 and a half inches tall, with dark hair and eyes and a fair complexion. His occupation: brick layer. He was also described as a cunning, artful, imposing fellow possessing a “superior degree of loquacity” which he used “in a most imposing manner.” [Read more…] about Simeon Ford: Deserter & War of 1812 Hero
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced grants totaling more than $1.4 million for 23 projects to help communities along the Hudson River Estuary improve water quality and enhance environmental education and stewardship.
The announcement coincides with the 20th Annual ‘Day in the Life of the Hudson and Harbor,’ where 5,000 student scientists are gathering along the Hudson River and New York Harbor to collect data on the Hudson’s fish and invertebrates, track the river’s tides and currents, and examine water chemistry and quality. [Read more…] about $1.4M For Hudson River Estuary Community Projects
In 1652, New Netherland Director General Peter Stuyvesant declared that Fort Orange and everything around it, including the village outside the fort, often called Oranje after the fort, was independent of the ownership of the Van Rensselaer family. He named the small mostly Dutch village “Beverwyck.”
Possibly at the urging of the Van Rensselaers, their earlier manager Arendt Van Curler (Corlear) began planning the construction of a new village. [Read more…] about Colonial Conflict, Native People, Anti-Catholicism & The Burning of Schenectady
In spite of his involvement and investment, Kiliaen Van Rensselaer never visited his new patroonship Rensselaerswyck; it was managed by his agent, and cousin, Arendt van Curler, commissioner general of the colony of New Netherland.
The second patroon, Johannes Van Rensselaer (1625–1662) succeeded his father after his father’s death in 1643 but also never came to America. He governed through an agent, Brant van Slichtenhorst. [Read more…] about Rensselaerswyck, Beverwyck & Schenectady: The Stuyvesant, Van Rensselaer and Van Slichtenhorst Conflict
Crailo State Historic Site (also known formerly as Fort Crailo) on the Hudson River in Rensselaer, once the Van Rensselaer family’s fortified home, has reopened to the public.
[Read more…] about Fort Crailo State Historic Site Has Reopened
In the late summer of 1664, four English frigates arrived off shore New Amsterdam. Rather than resisting, the Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, surrendered the city and colony to the English.
Although the Dutch briefly regained control of the colony in 1673, it was restored to English rule in the Treaty of Westminster the following year, marking the end of Dutch New York.
Despite the English conquest, the Dutch language continued to thrive in New York and northern New Jersey for generations, persisting into the twentieth century in certain areas. [Read more…] about When Did New York Stop Speaking Dutch?
Although it played a highly significant role in the settling and development of the Capital Region, Fort Crailo, the birthplace of “Yankee Doodle” and the manorial seat for generations for one branch of the Van Rensselaer family, remains relatively little known, even within the Capital Region itself.
Shirley W. Dunn’s new book, Fort Crailo and the Van Rensselaers: The Dutch Colonial Origins of Greenbush & the City of Rensselaer (Black Dome Press, 2016) traces the history of Crailo and the Van Rensselaers from the years leading up to the building of Fort Crailo in 1663, through the war years and through the many additions and renovations over the centuries and generations of Van Rensselaers, to the present day in its role as the museum of Dutch history in the Hudson River Valley. [Read more…] about Shirley Dunn’s Book: Fort Crailo and the Van Rensselaers
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