Like most old northeastern hospitals, St. Peter’s has grown all over the place, connecting one building to another in ways that are often incomprehensible and hide the buildings that they grew from. But despite all the changes, these two original elements of St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany are still noticeable today. On the left…

I’ve lived in the Capital District for something like 40 years. In all that time, I’ve never heard of Siena College referred to as anything but Siena College. I was even tangentially involved in Syracuse’s big “Beat Siena Week,” but was unaware the college had once sported a grander moniker. But here’s this undated…

Don’t recall having run across the name R.P. Thorn before, though a number of the watches and clocks they sold are still in the hands of collectors. This postcard was for the Dueber watch case – it was something like the iPhone case of its day, everyone had to have one. R.P. Thorn had…

We’d be remiss if we didn’t show this trade card for the Hatch Flexible Shoe, which as we’ve previously noted was manufactured by Thomas Fearey & Sons of Albany. The art is certainly of its time, and that was a time when a flexible shoe was something that amazed both onlookers and stray dogs.

This trade postcard from the Boston Public Library collection is a grand advertisement for E.J. Larrabee & Co., manufacturers of biscuits. We’ve shown one of their elegant billheads before. The front is just a gorgeous script; the back is a listing of their extensive offerings. Howell’s “Bi-Centennial History of Albany,” part of our normal…

“Bicycling, though so lately introduced to Albany, is fast becoming a popular sport among young business men. The Albany Bicycle club was organized Aug. 24, 1880, with thirteen members, and was soon added to the “League of American Wheelmen,” an organization numbering a thousand or more, its object to protect the interest of bicyclers…