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Freihofer’s Swedish Bread
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Anyone of a certain age (which is to say, my age or more) probably has fond memories of Freihofer’s, when it was a very important local brand, perhaps the local brand of bread and cakes. It was delivered, first by horsewagon and then by truck, right to our homes; we would put a sign…
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WGY Food Stores
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It seems incredible that there was once a very large chain of grocery stores named for one of the first radio stations in the country, and even more incredible that no one seems to remember it. But it’s true. In 1930, approximately 130 independently owned grocery stores in “virtually all cities and villages within…
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Cell phone service in Albany, 1945
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We know that Albany was in on some great technological breakthroughs – Joseph Henry’s discovery of electrical induction and creation of the first telegraph signal, John Wesley Hyatt’s invention of one of the earliest plastics. Turns out, we were on the map for one of the early experiments in what was then called the…
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“Get out and be something.”
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The wide-ranging autobiography of William Henry Johnson is filled with reminders of how much and how little has changed since its publication in 1900. In the “Finale,” John T. Chapman, manager of the Leonard Publishing Company’s publications, relates the story of two young men of color who stepped into Johnson’s well-respected Maiden Lane barber…
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President’s Day
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If someone from another culture were to come here today, on this President’s Day holiday, and try to guess what it is we’re celebrating, there’s no doubt he or she would probably guess that we’re honoring our two greatest mattress and auto salesmen of all time. Or perhaps furniture. But there is no chance,…
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An Aggressive and Intrepid Advocate
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Yesterday we introduced the man who may have been Albany’s foremost citizen of the abolitionist era, Dr. William Henry Johnson, “an aggressive and intrepid advocate of the rights of his race and the maintenance of the supremacy of our glorious United States. The “Doctor” before his name was purely an honorific, though one that may…
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The Autobiography of William Henry Johnson
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Ages ago I promised to try to tell the story of William Henry Johnson, one of the most remarkable and yet neglected figures in all of Albany’s history, but it became one of those tasks that keeps getting put off because of its sheer enormity. Where do you begin with someone, the first chapter…
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God save the Union!
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Again from the Albany Institute of History and Art collection, evidence of our city’s attempted redemption from its history of slavery. On January 5, 1863, a mass convention was held in celebration of the Emancipation Proclamation. Frederick Douglass, a frequent visitor to Albany, would be present. Could this be the Hamilton Street church that…
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Slavery at Albany
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As northerners, sometimes we’re a little bit smug about our home region having seen the light on slavery well before the rest of the country. But, still, it had to see the light. Slaves were part of Hudson and Mohawk valley households from the earliest European settlements. As noted last week, several perished in…
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Albany Beef
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Atlantic sturgeon was once so plentiful in the Hudson River that it was well known as “Albany beef.” This 1881article from the New York Times reprints an item from the Hudson Register on the supply of Albany beef in the river that summer. “When it is well prepared and has not become stale it…