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The Railroad Fireman’s Dream
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The Albany Journal printed an article in August, 1884 titled “The Railroad Fireman’s Dream”: “A remarkable accident occurred to Mr. Douglass M. Irish, a resident of No. 49 Colonie-street, about 10:30 o’clock Wednesday night. He is employed as a fireman on the Central Railroad, and as he sat asleep by an open window he…
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Summer re-runs: Bobsledding in Albany
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I originally posted this on My Non-Urban Life back in 2010. The folks at All Over Albany dug up an amazing test of the knowledge of eighth-graders in Albany in 1882. Not least amazing, besides the assumption that schoolchildren should know how to divide opium to the smallest scruple, was this instruction: “Write an…
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Troy Observer and Sunday Budget
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The Troy Observer and Sunday Budget, the only Sunday paper printed in Troy (and thus the only paper in Troy with color comics) ran at least until 1953.
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Sewing Machines, Clocks, Spectacles
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Andrew Aird dealt in sewing machines, clocks, spectacles, eye glasses, needles, oil, silk twist, thread and who knows what else from his store in the Mansion House Block in Troy. That great building, of course, still stands.
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Summer reruns: How Menands Got Its Name
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(A version of this was previously published at All Over Albany.) So, what is a Menand? Well, the question really is, who was Menand? For the answer, you’d have to look back to the late 1800s, when everyone from well-to-do collectors of exotic flora, to prosperous homeowners with gardens, to cemetery visitors who wanted…
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Albany Wire Cloth and Sieve Manufactory
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There are people who, because of the predominance of government in Albany’s economic and civic life today, think that Albany was never much of a manufacturing town. Quite the opposite is true, and it’s hard to imagine how a town that had so much manufacturing could have changed so completely. In 1858, “all kinds…
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Albany Iron and Saw Works
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Pruyn’s Albany Iron and Saw Works down on Pruyn Street was a substantial operation when this ad ran in 1858. The iron works manufactured just about everything that could be manufactured from iron, from boilers to bridges to bedsteads, and the saw works made tools ranging from tobacco cutters to water wheels to saws…
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Bonnet Bleaching
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Ladies! What to do when your beloved Barnum Blake bonnet becomes besmirched, bespotted or besoiled? Best betake yon bonnet to the Boston Bonnet Bleachery, where ladies’ straw, leghorn, chip and neapolitan bonnets were bleached and pressed in the best manner. N. Ware would gladly bleach and press them at short notice, and make them…
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Albany Eye and Ear Infirmary
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Knowing what we now know about what doctors didn’t know in the mid-19th century, it’s easy to imagine the Albany Eye and Ear Infirmary of 1858 as a chamber of horrors that could have involved a combination of bloodletting and mercury poisoning. And pneumatic extraction. “Dr. Gilbert’s celebrated Combination Pneumatic Extractor and Ear Syringe,…
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Albany Brush Factory
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1858. J.B. Armour, Brush Manufacturer, keeps constantly on hand a large assortment of brushes of all kinds and descriptions. When I was growing up, brushes were still a big thing. There were still Fuller brush salesmen, going door to door. Today, even though we still use brushes for all sorts of things, it seems…