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.

Tobogganing

On January 19, 1887, the New York Times reported on the Albany winter carnival and noted that “the toboggan slides at Ridgefield and the West End are in splendid order and are much frequented.”  Brought to the United States from Canada, the sport of tobogganing became a craze in the Capital Region in the 1880s. Slides were erected in Albany, Saratoga, and Troy.

Averaging fifty to sixty feet in height and supported by frames made of heavy timbers, the slides were paved with ice and angled at about forty-five degrees with the incline gradually decreasing. Toboggans were made to carry two to six or even eight people and differed from ordinary sleds because they were made with flat boards that turned up at the front end.

This new sport was accompanied by the need for appropriate outerwear. According to Huybertie Pruyn Hamlin of Albany, who wore the wool coat shown here, the Edward Miller & Company hardware store on Maiden Lane in Albany sold the blankets used to make the tobogganing suits, the long double mittens, the knitted caps, and the Canadian moccasins along with snowshoes and toboggans of all sizes. Hamlin, a member of Albany’s Ridgefield Athletic Club (Partridge and Madison Streets) frequented the club’s slide and described it as having four chutes and steps up the center with a space on each side for pulling up the toboggan. Spectators could watch from a bridge built over the chutes. Oil flares placed at ten foot intervals illuminated the slide.

Tobogganing Coat for Ridgefield Athletic Club

Sold by Edward Miller & Company, Albany, New York

1880–1890

Wool with cotton lining and wood buttons

Albany Institute of History & Art, gift of Huybertie Lansing Pruyn Hamlin, 1941.70.106

West End Slide

Brown, Albany, New York

c. 1886–1887

Colored albumen photograph collage

Courtesy of Fort Orange Club, Albany, New York

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Troy-Bilt Rototillers

Farmers and home gardeners can thank C. W. Kelsey for bringing rototillers to the United States. In 1930, Kelsey established the Rototiller Company in New York City to import and distribute a Swiss designed, German made “earth grinder” that could efficiently and easily cultivate soil. Two years later, Kelsey registered the trademark Rototiller®.

Kelsey teamed up with industrialist George B. Cluett and began manufacturing operations in Troy, New York, in 1937. During the next decade, the company transferred production of large tillers to another firm and focused on designing a better, less expensive machine. When Kelsey retired in 1957, he turned over the company to the employees who worked for him. The company briefly left Troy, but then returned under the name Watco Machine Products, Inc., and manufactured “The Trojan Horse.”

A trademark challenge in 1968 necessitated changing the name to Troy-Bilt® and the company was renamed Garden Way Manufacturing Company. Long-time Troy-Bilt® sales manager, Dean Leath, Jr., noted the trend in home gardening in the 1970s and began a marketing campaign that included publishing gardening booklets and exhibiting rototillers at county fairs.

The “Pony” model rototiller includes a sticker with Leath’s contact information telling the buyer what is included with the purchase. Marketed as easier to use for smaller backyard gardens, the “Pony” incorporates an engine made by Briggs and Stratton of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In 2001, the company declared bankruptcy and was purchased by MTD of Ohio.

Troy-Bilt® Rototiller (Pony Model)

Garden Way Manufacturing Company, Troy, New York

1980s

Steel, metal, paint

Courtesy of the Hudson-Mohawk Industrial Gateway

Caroline Cluett in her Garden

1947

Gelatin silver photographic print

Courtesy of the Hudson-Mohawk Industrial Gateway

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Textile Industry

In the 1870s, the largest cotton mill complex in the world was located in Cohoes, New York. The surviving mill buildings and workers’ houses hint at the once thriving industry that began in 1836 when Peter Harmony strategically founded a textile company along the Erie Canal, utilizing water diverted from the Cohoes Falls to power his factory. Raw cotton from southern states was processed, spun, and knitted or woven into printed calicos and fine cotton muslins.

By 1870, Cohoes had eighteen knitting mills and six cotton mills running 203,000 spindles, hence the city’s nickname, the “Spindle City.” The largest mill, Mill No. 3 at Harmony Mills, was built between 1866 and 1872. The building was 1,185 feet long and five stories high. It was considered to be one of the most technologically advanced cotton factories in America. At its peak, Harmony Mills employed 3,100 people and had a predominantly female work force. Mill No. 3 alone housed 2,700 looms that produced 100,000 yards of fabric every sixty hours. The Harmony complex sold in 1937 when the cotton industry became less dependent on water power.

Clark Tompkins of Troy invented and patented the upright rotary knitting machine, illustrated here, to produce knit goods that could be turned into men’s and women’s shirts and drawers. Considered noiseless, the machine could knit, revolve, and wind the material. Machines manufactured by him, and later his sons known as Tompkins Brothers, were used throughout the United States, Canada, and South America.

Upright Rotary Knitting Machine

Tompkins Brothers, Troy, New York

c. 1895

Cast iron, metals, cotton yarn, wood

Courtesy of the New York State Museum

Birds-Eye-View of Cohoes, N.Y.

1879

Publisher / Location: Galt & Hoy

Medium: Color lithograph on paper

Dimensions: 25 1/2 H x 34 3/4 W

Credit: Albany Institute of History & Art Purchase

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