New York's Capital Region in 50 Objects

New York's Capital Region in 50 Objects

Introduction

Each region of the nation has its own distinctive history and identity. The New York’s Capital Region—consisting of Albany, Rensselaer, Schenectady, and Saratoga Counties—is no different. But what best identifies the region? What events, objects, people, and ideas have contributed to its character and uniqueness?

To learn the answers, we presented these questions to the numerous museums, historical organizations, libraries, and residents of the Capital Region. The fifty objects that were ultimately selected present an exciting history of the Capital Region, including well-known favorites but also unexpected surprises. Some of the fifty objects characterize very broad topics like the textile industry and the Hudson River School of art, while others embody large populations of people who shaped the character of the region, such as the Dutch and the Iroquois. Many objects represent specific people or events, such as writer William Kennedy and the Battle of Saratoga. In some instances, the objects represent themselves, like the GE Monitor Top refrigerator and Albany’s beloved Nipper statue. A complementary image accompanies each of the fifty objects, providing context and additional information.

Overall, the fifty objects clearly demonstrate that this narrowly circumscribed part of New York State has played an astonishing role in shaping the history of the nation and, in several instances, the world beyond the confines of our national borders.

Albany Ale

Albany Ale and the Upper Hudson Valley’s ale brewing tradition began nearly 400 years ago with the earliest Dutch settlers. By the 1650s, twelve breweries were operating in the village of Beverwijck (present day Albany) and the surrounding region.

Over the next 150 years, commercial ale brewing grew in and around Albany, and the area became known as a brewing hub in colonial and post-Revolutionary War America. With the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, and the rise of New York's hops industry in the 1840s and 1850s, ale production in the Upper Hudson Valley exploded. By the 1860s, Albany and Troy alone boasted twenty to thirty breweries. Among them was Albany's John Taylor & Sons, the largest brewery in the country, capable of producing 200,000 barrels of beer a year. Most of the breweries of the Upper Hudson Valley produced Albany Ale—a strong, pale, mild ale—and most of the Albany Ale brewed was made for the export market, being sold in cities like New York, Boston, Charleston, New Orleans, and San Francisco, and across the globe in places like Newfoundland, Hawaii, and Surinam.

The popularity of Albany Ale waned at the end of the nineteenth century. The country's ever-expanding web of railroads diminished the Upper Hudson Valley’s dominance in the distribution of ale, while the taste for light, crisp, German-style lager was also increasing. National Prohibition, begun in 1920, halted all legal brewing for thirteen years. Most of the breweries that re-opened after repeal focused on light lager, but the area’s ale brewing roots were still relevant in the 1980s and 1990s when William S. Newman opened his ale-centered “boutique” brewery on Learned Street in Albany. Today, with the “craft revolution” in full-swing, the Upper Hudson Valley is seeing a resurgence in beer-making, continuing the area’s rich brewing heritage.

Albany Ales and Steamed Clams Lamp

Probably made in Schoharie, New York | c. 1870–1880

Maker / Manufacturer: Probably made in Schoharie, New York

R. Dunlop & Son's Albany Ale and Porter

c. 1840

Printer: Joel Munsell, Albany, NY

Medium: Lithograph and letterpress on paper

Dimensions: 17 1/4 H x 21 1/2 W

Credit: Bequest of Ledyard Cogswell, Jr.

R. Dunlop & Son's Albany Ale and Porter

c. 1840

Printer: Joel Munsell, Albany, NY

Medium: Lithograph and letterpress on paper

Dimensions: 17 1/4 H x 21 1/2 W

Credit: Bequest of Ledyard Cogswell, Jr.

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Albany Billiard Balls

One man’s search for a better billiard ball paved the way for early plastics manufacturing, and Albany is where it began. In 1863 a young printer named John Wesley Hyatt responded to a challenge by New York billiard table manufacturers Phelan [&] Collender. The company offered $10,000 to anyone who could make a successful substitute for ivory billiard balls. Ivory had been the traditional material, but as it aged and dried the balls often cracked and became distorted in shape. Hyatt had earlier worked with a material called collodion, a solution of nitrocellulose dissolved in alcohol, which he discovered solidified into a hard material. When mixed with camphor, a compound called celluloid could be pressed in a mold to make billiard balls. Instead of taking the $10,000, Hyatt started his own company in 1868, the Hyatt Manufacturing Company, which not only made billiard balls but also dominoes, checkers, and even dentures.

In 1875, the Scottish immigrant Peter Kinnear took over the billiard ball manufacturing business and changed the name to Albany Billiard Ball Company. At the time, the factory was located on the southeast corner of Grand and Plain Streets in Albany (now under the South Mall Arterial). Kinnear and others encountered one major problem: celluloid tended to explode into flames. Fortunately, another early plastic developed by Hyatt, called bonsilate, was better suited for billiard balls. Made from finely ground bone and sodium silicate, bonsilate was sturdier than celluloid, held color better, and did not burst into flames. Kinnear quickly adopted the composition as the primary material for his billiard balls.

By the early twentieth century Albany Billiard Ball Company relocated from its downtown operation to a larger factory on the corner of Delaware Avenue and Whitehall Road. It remained in business until the 1980s.

Hyatt Billiard Balls

Albany Billiard Ball Company | c. 1940-60

Maker / Manufacturer: Albany Billiard Ball Company

Dimensions: 2 ¼” diam., Box 9 ¾” x 9 ¾” x 2 ½”

Credit: Gift of Mrs. Richard C. Rockwell

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