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.

Dudley Observatory

The Dudley Observatory was incorporated in 1856 as part of an ambitious plan to create a university in Albany that would rival those of Europe. The university did not materialize at that time but plans for an observatory received popular backing as well as support from wealthy Albany residents, including the banker Thomas Olcott and Blandina Dudley, widow of the Observatory’s namesake politician Charles Dudley.

In 1905, the Dudley Observatory became the Carnegie Institution’s Department of Meridian Astronomy, responsible for creating the largest and most accurate star catalogue yet produced.  For the next thirty years, the Dudley focused on measuring star positions by recording the exact time that a star passed a certain meridian. Since no single measurement was guaranteed to be accurate, the recording had to be repeated night after night for months. A clock that could keep time consistently across those months was essential for determining accurate star positions.

This bracket-mounted clock, manufactured by the company of Clemens Riefler in Munich, Germany, was simply the most accurate timepiece of its era. Originally stored in a sealed glass cylinder and kept in low pressure to reduce the effects of atmospheric shifts on the accuracy, Riefler clocks were accurate to within 10 milliseconds per day. These clocks were used by observatories and timekeeping services, and the first U.S. standard time was supplied by Riefler clocks from 1904 until 1929.

This particular clock was bolted to a wall in Dudley’s Lake Street Observatory, providing reliably accurate time through a telegraph wire to less accurate clocks, chronographs, and other astronomical instruments.

Precision Wall Clock

Manufactured by Clemens Riefler, Munich, Germany

1903

Brass, iron, paint, glass

Courtesy of Dudley Observatory

Dudley Observatory Dedication, August 28, 1856

Tompkins H. Matteson (1813-1884) | 1857

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 56 1/4 H x 72 1/4 W

Provenance: From the artist to Dudley Observatory, Albany, NY, to General Amasa J. Parker, to Albany Institute

Credit: Gift of General Amasa J. Parker

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Colonel Elmer Ellsworth (1837-1861), 11th New York Volunteers

Born in Malta, New York, in 1837, and raised in nearby Mechanicville, Elmer Ellsworth moved to Rockford, Illinois, in 1854 and then to Chicago in 1859. There he formed the United States Zouave Cadets, which, under his command, popularized the colorful Zouave uniform and acrobatic drill after a six-week Eastern cities tour during the summer of 1860, including stops across New York State. After the tour, Ellsworth moved to Springfield, Illinois, and joined Abraham Lincoln’s law office. At the start of the Civil War, he returned to New York City to recruit a Zouave regiment, the “1st New York Fire Zouaves,” or the 11th New York Volunteers, from the city’s volunteer firemen.

As Union forces, including Ellsworth’s 11th New York Volunteers, departed Washington, D.C., on May 24, 1861, to wrestle Alexandria, Virginia, from Confederate hands, Ellsworth decided to remove a large Confederate national flag from atop the Marshall House hotel. With a small party, Ellsworth climbed to the roof and cut down the flag. On his way down, the hotel’s proprietor, James T. Jackson, shot and killed Ellsworth, who was wearing this double-breasted gray wool frock coat. Ellsworth’s death made him a martyr for the Union cause and inspired recruits from across New York State to become “Ellsworth Avengers.”

Officer’s Frock Coat worn by Colonel Elmer Ellsworth, 11th New York Volunteers

1861

Wool, brass buttons

Courtesy of New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center

A Requiem. In Memory of Ellsworth

Composed by George William Warren

Printed by Sarony, Major & Knapp, New York City

c. 1861

Lithograph on paper

Courtesy of Private Collection

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Dutch Material Culture

The Dutch settlers of the Upper Hudson River valley brought with them from the Netherlands traditional forms of architecture, furniture, household objects, paintings, and decorative items. Occasionally, actual Dutch objects were carried into the region with colonizing families or were imported and sold through merchants. Traditional painted Dutch tiles and decorated table ceramics were the most common. Most of the time, however, New York Dutch craftsmen borrowed from traditional Dutch styles and forms to create objects that featured a combination of Dutch design and New York innovation.
The large storage cupboard known as a kast is one of the best examples of a New York adaptation of a traditional Dutch cabinet form. In Dutch households the kast held table and bed linens and articles of clothing. Because of its impressive size and prominence in the main room of the house the kast also became a symbol of status.

This early eighteenth-century kast made of red gum, a favored wood among New York makers, was most likely constructed in Albany. It descended through the Glen-Sanders family of Scotia and may have been made for the marriage of Jacob Glen to Sara Wendell in 1717, or the marriage of their daughter Deborah Glen to John Sanders in 1739.

A painting by artist Pieter de Hooch shows a Dutch interior of the 1660s with an elaborate rosewood and ebony kast that is similar to the Albany kast owned by the Glen-Sanders family.

Kast from Glen-Sanders Family

Probably Albany, New York

c. 1710–1740

Red gum, pine, paint, varnish

Courtesy of Schenectady County Historical Society

Interior with Figures

Pieter de Hooch

1663–65

Oil on canvas

Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum, Robert Lehman Collection, 1975.1.144

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