Author: Carl Johnson

This lovely ad from 1894 is for Van Gaasbeek’s carpet store on North Pearl Street, opposite the Kenmore Hotel. Cuyler Reynolds, in the 1911 “Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs,” told us this about Alexander Van Gaasbeek: “Alexander Boyd [Gaasbeek], son of Dr. Jacobus and Helen (Boyd) Van Gaasbeek, was born in Middleburg, New York,…

(Part One, which covered Schools One through Eight, is here; Part Two, Schools Nine through 21, is here.) Some time ago, we provided StreetViews of the school sites as they appear today; that’s here. So, more of the souvenir guide to Albany’s schools as they stood in 1894, with no further insight into why…

(Part One, which covered Schools One through Eight, is here.) So we were working our way through “The Public Schools of Albany, N.Y.,” a souvenir volume from 1894. For reasons known only to the compilers, a few of the schools that existed at the time are entirely skipped over, including School No. 9, whose…

Some time back, we took a look at the inventory of Albany schools as they stood in 1922, along with some pictures of the ones that still stood in 2013. We’ve just found a guide to Albany schools from 1894 that provides pictures along with more detailed information about each school that was in…

Not precisely Albany, but we couldn’t help but notice this advertisement in the 1894 guide to Albany schools for the Smead System of Warming, Ventilation and Sanitation for School Buildings. They were very concerned about the physical state of teachers. “For teachers and children to breathe over and over air loaded with foul gases…

So, what were the entertainment options for the family of leisure in Albany, back in January of 1891? You couldn’t complain there was nothing to do. At Proctor’s Theatre (oh yes, Albany had one of those, too), 45 South Pearl St., Henry E. Dixey was performing “The Seven Ages.” Sounds very tame and refined,…

Another ad from 1894, in a publication about the Albany school system, proving that ads could be ridiculous and just a little inane even 120 years ago. The Walsh family was selling furs and more at 58 State Street at least as early as 1870, and continued on at other locations (North Pearl and…

There’s no real Albany connection to the Milton Bradley Company, well-known game-makers of Springfield, Mass., but in 1894 they took out an ad in a book celebrating Albany public schools. It was a lovely bit of typography. Obviously, they made more than games, and Milton Bradley himself was a strong advocate of the kindergarten…

So we mentioned that during the Albany Chemical Company’s reign as the top producer of chloroform in the country, they were embroiled in some patent battles. Well, some decades later, they were to be found in patent court once again, this time trying to enforce a patent they didn’t really hold. They were pioneering…