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The Ark of Albany
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Munsell’s Annals of Albany could keep an amateur historian busy until the end of time, running down all the interesting tidbits. For example, without Munsell, we would never have known that Albany once had an ark. Apparently around 1830 or so, the companies that owned tow boats (probably steam boats by this time –…
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Samuel Penny and Rebecca Rhino
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Buried in Munsell’s “Annals of Albany,” in the “Notes from the Newspapers” section, is this tidbit from 1833 on the death of one Samuel T. Penny. “He was a native of England, had resided in this city about thirty years, and was noted for his biblical knowledge and eccentricities, the latter the effect of…
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Unclaimed Baggage and Storage
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From the Times-Union, December 11, 1914, a reminder that the idea of people leaving behind things they’ve put into storage is nothing new, although a century ago they hadn’t figured out how to make it into entertainment. This announces a public auction sale of unclaimed storage and baggage, “and many other articles which have…
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Edward Boom, Homeopathic Vet
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For this ad from the 1893 Albany Directory, Hoxsie has no answers, only questions. Such as: Dr. Boom? Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeon? Does “and Dentist” refer to veterinary dentistry, or was he a people dentist as a sideline? His reference was a brewery? (This one actually makes sense, as the breweries had large teams of…
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The World’s Fair Excursion and Hotel Association
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It’s 1893, and you want to visit the Columbian Exposition, the massive World’s Fair being held in Chicago to celebrate the 400th anniversary (plus a year) of Columbus’s stumbling upon what was not quite the Americas (among other things). But how are you to make your travel arrangements? There’s no internet, no 800 phone…
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Fastest Typesetter in the East (or West)
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Was Mr. George Dawson, eventually editor of the Albany Evening Journal, one of the fastest typesetters of his day? Well, the Printer’s Circular seemed to think so. Though he was much much more than that. In order to understand this, readers will need a little familiarity with the terms. At the time, all type…
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Is Printing a Healthy Business?
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While looking for more information on Churchill & Denison, an early pair of Albany photographers who were in partnership during the Civil War era, we ran across this odd little tidbit – not about photographers, but about printers. The journal “Western Medical Advance and Progress of Pharmacy,” dated December, 1871, reprinted at the top…
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Rensselaer Churchill, Daguerreotypist
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Our post yesterday had us curious about the photographer who may have noted the name of his subject (C. Adams Stevens), his political affiliation, and – and this is what we think least likely – his weight. The source for the photograph noted that on the back was the mark of one Rensselaer E.…
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Hoxsie by Email!
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Hoxsie has a new way to annoy you – the miracle of email! We get hundreds of potentially legitimate hits per day (and thousands of Russian spambots), but up ’til now the only way you could find out if Hoxsie had anything new to say about anything old was through our RSS feed (which,…
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Col. C. Adams Stevens, the Western Adventurer/Embezzler
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The Greenbush Bridge was the third bridge to cross the Hudson River between Albany and Greenbush (first was the Livingston Avenue, then the Maiden Lane), but practice did not make perfect, and this third crossing was not made smoothly. The first company chartered to build the bridge was led by a colorful character going…