• The Maria Theresa enters the Smithsonian

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    Carl Johnson

    After Nathaniel Bishop paddled a Waters paper canoe from its place of manufacture in Troy all the way to the Gulf of Mexico, he sent the craft, dubbed the “Maria Theresa,” to the Smithsonian Institution in 1876. (And of course we all know that Albany’s Joseph Henry was the first Secretary of the Smithsonian.)…

  • The merits of the paper canoe

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    Carl Johnson

    Nathaniel Bishop didn’t originally set out to paddle from Troy to the Gulf of Mexico in a paper canoe. He had started from Quebec in a traditional wooden boat, but on arriving at Albany he decided that he needed to jettison both his paddling companion and his heavy boat. “After a journey of four…

  • Down the Hudson in a paper boat

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    Carl Johnson

    On July 4, 1874, Nathaniel Bishop left Quebec in an 18-foot canoe, intending to paddle (with an unnamed assistant) to the Gulf of Mexico. “It was his intention to follow the natural and artificial connecting watercourses of the continent in the most direct line southward to the gulf coast of Florida, making portages as…

  • Hoxsie’s evil twin?

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    Carl Johnson

    As has been explained before, this blog was named for an amazing advertisement featuring a charming rooster proclaiming “HOXSIE!”, the name of a local maker of various sodas,sarsaparilla, lager beer and cider. I was so smitten with that rooster’s simple message that I just had to name my local Capital District history site after…

  • White & Moore’s Celebrated Malt Coffee

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    Carl Johnson

    I’d never before heard of White & Moore’s Celebrated Malt Coffee. According to a place in New Zealand that still makes it, “roasted malt coffee is made from the roasted grain of malted barley – a mild and nutty coffee-like flavour, the most flavourful of all cereal coffee substitutes.” I’m up for malt in…

  • Another view of the Burr Bridge

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    Carl Johnson

    Last year the Grems-Doolittle Library of the Schenectady County Historical Society featured the photographs of early Schenectady photographer Henry Tripp. Since yesterday we heard the story of cows falling through the old Burr bridge that connected Schenectady to Scotia, today we’ll take a look at Tripp’s great photo of the Washington Avenue approach to…

  • Cows Below!

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    Carl Johnson

    Schenectady, Oct. 14, 1857: “The flooring of the old Mohawk bridge gave way this forenoon, precipitating about fifty head of cattle a distance of eighteen feet into the river. Only one of the cows was hurt. This is the first accident that has occurred since the building of the bridge, by Theodore Burr, in…

  • Malt Wine: It’s Just Science

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    Carl Johnson

    In 1863 John McKnight’s Son (first name unknown) was a brewer operating the corner of Canal, Hawk and Orange streets, space currently occupied by the Sheridan Avenue steam plant (Canal was later renamed Sheridan). His unrivaled malt wine was available everywhere, bottled and in wood. Let’s assume that means barrels. He had agencies in…

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