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Fishing Is Dangerous!
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Ripley’s “Romance of a Great Factory” from 1919 gives us an unsurprisingly romantic view of the Schenectady General Electric works at that time. In addition to providing us with Charles Steinmetz’s private shorthand method, its appendix section (titled “Fragments”) gave a little recitation of industrial accident facts to show that life at GE was…
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How Dr. Steinmetz Writes
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Charles Ripley’s “Romance of a Great Factory” is a 1919 love letter to the Schenectady General Electric works, printed by the Gazette Press, and with an introduction by none other than Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz, the electrical wizard. In an afterword section titled “Fragments,” Ripley presented a short explanation of “How Dr. Steinmetz Writes,”…
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You Whippersnappers Don’t Even Know The Smell of Good Burlap
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AllOverAlbany was good enough to indulge our sentimental reminiscences of when every neighborhood was lousy with grocery stores, stockboys’ hands were covered in purple ink, and you could close the wrapper on a box of Rice Krispies. Read all about it over at their site.
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Delavan House Menu: Maybe Just The Toast
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From the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia, an 1875ish breakfast menu from Albany’s leading temperance hotel, the Delavan House, in the era when Charles Leland was running it (which puts this between 1867 and 1882). Founder Edward Delavan was a rabid temperance advocate who brought prohibition to the state of New York…
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History Links! Get Yer History Links Here!
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It’s been a while since we did a Phoenixville Phriday. So, a couple of cool bits of local history news came out of our new hometown region this week. The first was the amazing news that little Phoenixville was, for 17 years, hiding a secret treasure trove. Revolutionary War muskets, cannons, paintings, sculptures, uniforms,…
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Albany, And Two Women Holding Grain
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Again from Ben Franklin’s Library Company of Philadelphia, we have this interesting envelope featuring a bird’s-eye view of Albany, along with two women holding grain over the legend “Empire State.” Did they represent the plenty provided by the state’s farms? Not clear. The envelope was created by Charles Magnus of Frankfort St., New York…
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The People’s Line
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There are so many reasons to love the Smithsonian Institute – and not just that its first secretary was Albany’s Joseph Henry. It’s a treasure trove of wonderful objects like this one: a token from the People’s Line. The Smithsonian has no opinion on the date of this token, but does know that it…
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This Is Not A Collar, But Still
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Did you know Benjamin Franklin founded a free library? Okay, you probably did. Did you know that library still exists, as The Library Company of Philadelphia? And did you further know that the online collections of The Library Company of Philadelphia include some items of interest to Capital District history nerds? Well, now you…
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Guy Mannering: Good Dog
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Dudley Olcott was a member of the Olcott family that owned the Ten Broeck mansion, Arbor Hill. Born in 1838, he attended the Albany Academy and took a course in civil engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and then joined the family business (well, one of them) as an assistant cashier at the Mechanics’ and…