• Misunderstanding how to use quotes since 1870

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    Carl Johnson

    Well, at least “Haines” didn’t put “photographer” in quotes, so youcould have some assurance as to what he did, even if you were led todoubt whether he was using his real name. There were a number of photographers operating down on Broadway in the years following the Civil War, and while others may have…

  • Pinkster

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    Carl Johnson

    Albany’s current Tulip Festival has its origins in Pinkster, which was celebrated by slaves and servant. There is an excellent description of Pinkster at the Knickerbocker Ledger. This definition from an Albany guide book explains Pinkster as: “A negro festival which used to be celebrated on Capitol hill when slavery existed in the State. It…

  • Typographical show-off

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    Carl Johnson

    Van Debogert Bros. sold lumber and coal and cement and flour and grain and yada yada yada. In the mind of some printer in 1862, that was secondary to the excellent opportunity this ad afforded to show off how many very fancy fonts were available. Again for you kids, there was a time when…

  • Mimeo

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    Carl Johnson

    Kids, prepare for a shock. It used to be that when you needed a copy of something, you couldn’t just pop it in a Xerox machine. Before the advent of xerography in the 1960s, there actually was no way (short of full-scale printing methods or photographic duplication) to make a copy of an existing…

  • Hartshorn’s Shade Rollers

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    Carl Johnson

    Okay, so Hartshorn’s shade rollers weren’t made in the Capital District, but how often do you see ads for interior decorating, or window treatments, or anything, that tout that they are in use at many public buildings, including (shouting now) THE NEW CAPITOL AT ALBANY? Not often. Not often enough.   Apparently there’s still…

  • Cash Buys Paste.

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    Carl Johnson

    What did Troy’s garage bands do in the days before staple guns and telephone poles? They called on Mrs. Dundon, City Bill Poster, who  pasted billsheets to the bricks of the Collar City. When this ad was published in 1895, the brush had been a power in the land for 26 years. Cash buys…

  • Peter Coddle’s Trip to New York

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    Carl Johnson

    What did people do for fun on rainy afternoons in 1888 (or, for that matter, 1968)? They played Peter Coddle’s Trip to New York. Now you can, too.

  • Stove Capital of the Country

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    Carl Johnson

    Before collars, Troy’s fortune was made in iron works. The old forests of the Adirondacks fueled iron forges up and down the Champlain valley and beyond, but Troy emerged as the major iron manufacturing center in the state in the mid-1800s. And for a time Troy and nearby foundries were putting out huge proportion…

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