Month: January 2014
When State Street was a crowded market
The 1884 Albany Hand-book (“A Stranger’s Guide and Resident’s Manual”) provided this description of Albany’s most notable street: “State Street owes its great width to the fact that in the […]
The Mayor
Now that Albany is burning through mayors (we’re now on our fourth since 1941!), Hoxsie thought we’d look back at Albany government the way it used to be done, with […]
The Living Skeleton
The Albany Hand-book in 1884 contained an interesting entry on Calvin Edson, “the walking skeleton,” who “came to Albany in April, 1830, exhibited himself at the Museum, and gave levees […]
The mysterious Anneke Jans
Since first posting this, I’ve written considerably more on Anneke Jans. The Albany Hand-book from 1884 saw fit to include an entry on one of the city’s most enigmatic early […]
On this day in 1885
Not big on reporting what happened on this day in other years, but every now and then it’s fun. So this is what was reported in the Troy Local Budget […]
Blasie’s Imperial Porcelain Baths
In 1884, Blasie’s Imperial Porcelain Baths were, we are told, the only establishment in Albany where porcelain bath tubs were in use. If the most fastidious did, in fact, concede […]
The Christmas windows of the stationery trade
More from Albany correspondent “Chic’s” regular letter to The American Stationer magazine, an 1889 celebration of personal printing in the capital city, which we started yesterday: In my last Albany […]
The State of Stationery, 1889
Last week we mentioned S.R. Gray, noted printer and stationer. He was notable, sure, but in his day (specifically, in 1889), Albany was crawling with stationers. Witness this, the start […]
S.R. Gray, Publisher, Bookseller, Stationer
“The Albany Hand-book: A Stranger’s Guide and Resident’s Manual,” published in 1884, describes the establishment of S.R. Gray, Publisher, Bookseller, Stationer and Blank Book Maker: “Gray’s Book Store, on State […]