Back in 1886, Albany celebrated its bicentennial (dating back to its charter as a city, not its founding) with a grand exhibition held at the Albany Academy. That building, where Joseph Henry figured out inductance while teaching schoolboys, still stands in Academy Park. This exhibition, unfortunately, had little or nothing to do with Albany…

The Albany Hand-book of 1884 saw fit to mention that in 1880, Albany County was home to 3,325 farms, ranging in size from 2 acres to 1,000 acres, “there being only one of a thousand acres; average size, 92 acres.” As a county, we were big on oats and potatoes, apparently.

This is an advertising card that appeared in Easton, Pennsylvania, sometime around 1870. It was printed for a local retailer, which may be how it actually gets the name of Thomas Fearey & Sons entirely wrong, calling the firm instead “Joseph Frarey & Son.” Well, if you can’t get the manufacturer’s name right, is…

Today, let’s just enjoy this delightful Fairy “children’s vehicle,” available from Albany Hardware and Iron Company, the successor to Maurice Viele’s hardware store.

I’m not sure why 19th century Albany hated the cottonwood so much that planting one was an offense punishable by three months in the Albany penitentiary. If the goal was to prevent this weed of a tree from spreading everywhere, our forebears definitely did not succeed, as is easy to see in the spring…

The Albany Hand-book of 1884 saw fit to give us a few words on, as far as I can see, only these two of the various ethnic communities that made up the capital city in those days. Here are the descriptions: Italians.–The Italian colony in Albany consists of some twenty-five families. They are a…

Here’s an 1884 view of Child’s Hospital, from Hawk Street, where it sat at the corner of Elk. (Now, of course, it’s a scenic parking lot.)  At that time, Child’s, which opened March 26, 1875, was in the charge of the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus, an Episcopal order associated with the Cathedral…

Back in 1884, Maurice Viele had the busiest hardware store in the state, right at the foot of State Street in Albany: “The hardware store of Maurice E. Viele, Nos. 39, 41 and 43 State st., is one of the busiest places in Albany, inasmuch as his assortment of this kind of goods is…