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War stories
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In journalism school, we always referred to tales of ink-stained wretches and newspapers gone by told by our professors as “war stories.” But a teacher of French at the Albany Female Academy in the 1830s had some real war stories to tell: General Henri La Fayette Villaume Ducoudray Holstein. He was a native of…
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At the intersection of science and art
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about all the other Albanies that were named for our Albany. One of the most distant places on the planet was named, not for Albany, but for a prominent Albany native: The Eights Coast of Antarctica was named for prominent scientist and artist James Eights. His exact…
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Edward Willett, hat-maker and poet
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Joel Munsell’s “Annals of Albany, Vol. 10” from 1859 includes items of interest from the newspapers of the years gone by, including this delightful bit of commercial doggerel attached to an item from Nov. 13, 1835: The hat factory of Edward S. Willett, corner of Green and Basset streets, was burnt. He was the…
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Let us remember
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On this day in Albany history: in 1847, “Jakey Jackson, famed as a cleaner of lawyers’ offices, dies.” (Albany Chronicles, Cuyler Reynolds, 1906.)
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Coincidence? I think not…
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Ran across this intriguing pair of articles about the Schenectady Savings Bank that were published in the New York Times on June 15, 1894. First, a dispatch from Albany stating that the Superintendent of Banks had found a shortage in the bank’s accounts upward of $10,000. And then, immediately below, offered without irony or…
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That doesn’t sound like Saratoga
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Still from 1973 — the copy editor who wrote this headline in the Schenectady Gazette probably sensed that the writer had buried the lead; without that head, most readers wouldn’t have gotten through the tax exemption and housing code amendments to that part about the topless waitresses. Okay, so, topless waitresses, and the Mayor…
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Would $1,400 change your life?
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In 1973, Capital Financial Services wanted to know if $1,400 would change your life. Considering that later in the paper, you could find an ad for a four-year-old Ford LTD at $1495, it’s hard to imagine that $1,400 was really a “big money” loan. This company was way out in a strip plaza…
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Top of the sevens, ma!
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1973 was a year of inflation — even before President Ford’s famous “Whip Inflation Now” pins (they didn’t work), the prices of meat, gasoline and other staples of life were growing at an incredible pace. Schenectady Savings Bank, where passbook savings accounts ran at about 5% in the previous years, was here advertising savings…
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