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Troop 14’s Frog Drive
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While we’re scouring old copies of Boys’ Life (as one does), let’s take a look back at what the boys of Boy Scout Troop 14, composed of students of the Albany Academy, were doing back in 1914. They were very active in earning their own expenses and increasing their bank account through a mix…
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Albany Institute Mechanical Drawing
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Trying to solve one mystery always turns up at least three more. Searching around for something else, we came upon an advertisement in an old Boys’ Life magazine, of all things (the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, for those who don’t know). It was for something we had never heard…
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The Albany Fire of 1793: A Racial Fire
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The memoirs of Henriette Lucie Dillon, Marquise de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet, touched on one of the most mysterious and unsettling events in Albany history, a mix of fear, fire and racial scapegoating. Her comments on this are enlightening as they certainly reflect the understanding given her by the Albany elites who hosted…
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The Resting Place of Séraphine
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A couple of eagle-eyed (or elephant-memoried) readers were already familiar with the story of Henriette Lucie Dillon, Marquise de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet, whose “Journal d’une femme de cinquante ans” has been the subject of our last several entries. And they were also familiar with an article about the Marquise and her former…
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Talleyrand Visits Albany and Troy
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So, the Marquis and Marquise de la Tour du Pin found themselves in exile in Albany (as one does) in 1794. With what seems like extremely benevolent assistance from General Philip Schuyler and his family, they were set up to buy a farm on property that is now the site of the Sisters of…
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The French Exiles Adopt Very American Ways
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One of the joys of amateur history is putting something out there and instantly getting a reaction with whole new information that we never knew, or making a connection that we had somehow missed. So yesterday’s entry on the French exile, the Marquis de la Tour du Pin (among other names – proper addresses…
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French Refugees in 19th Century Troy
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It appears that early on in its history, the then-village of Troy was home to political refugees from France. In his “Troy’s One Hundred Years, 1789-1889,” Arthur James Weise says that in 1794, Troy became the temporary home of several refugees. “The most eminent were Frédéric Séraphin, marquis de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet,…
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From Van der Heyden Farms to the Village of Troy
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If in, say, the 1780s anyone were taking bets on which local community might someday rise to rival Albany’s mercantile power, they would likely have favored Lansingburgh as the capital city’s chief competition. Schenectady was a sleepy community of broommakers and hops growers, though still a gateway to the west for the few who…
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For Sale in 1839 Troy: Sultana Raisins and Erasive Balls
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In case you think that in the days before global trade, the Capital District was a wasteland of nothing but Albany beef, beaver pelts and soda crackers, allow this small sampling of advertising from the Troy Daily Whig,1839, to change your mind. First, an ad from M. Cornwell of 329 River Street. He was…
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African-Americans in Lansingburgh’s History
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Lansingburgh has a long and interesting history – in fact, if you told its founding fathers that the little village that became the city of Troy would rise to be one of the great powers of the industrial age, they may have doubted your sanity. Today we mostly only think of it in relation…