The Albany Institute of History & Art Library is a non-circulating research library with collections related to the art, history, and culture of the upper Hudson Valley of New York. Collections include manuscript materials, photographs, maps, rare books, and other collections dating from the seventeenth century to the present.
Parker Dunn was a winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor. The bridge over the Hudson River was named in his memory. An American Legion Post was named for Parker Dunn.
On November 21, 1868, under the guidance of Dr. Ebell, sixty-two people, mostly teachers, alumni, and students from the Albany Female Academy (known today as the Albany Academy for Girls) met in the school to form the Albany Chapter of the Dana Natural History Society. The Society was named in honor of Dr. James Dwight Dana a famous geologist, mineralogist, and zoologist from Yale College. This collection contains materials such as newspaper clippings, member written articles, histories, documents from meetings and proceedings, scrapbooks, photographs, letters, awards, and other ephemera.
William Law Learned Peltz, (1882-1961), was a graduate of the Albany Academy, Yale and the Albany Law School. This collection consists of clippings, transcriptions, journal articles, receipts, letterheads, correspondence, postcards, photographs, pamphlets and prints.
Mary Palmer Calverley Byrne-Ivy (1870- ) was a singer, pianist and voice teacher. Mary's father was Charles Calverley, an artist who served as an assistant to Erastus Dow Palmer for a time in Albany, New York.
Jared Holt opened his leather store in Albany, New York, in 1834. The company eventually grew to become well-known in the shoe wax industry and closed in 1992.
The collection includes photographs from the two locations of Madison Liquor and Wine (1060 Madison Avenue and 1078 Madison Avenue), documentation for construction work done in 1954 to the 1078 Madison Avenue location, receipts pertaining to the construction, Madison Liquor and Wine ephemera like business cards, matchbooks and newspaper articles.
This collection includes family papers for the Bedlow, Corpron, and McRae families, who were related through marriage and adoption. The Bedlow family was originally from Massachusetts before settling in Plattsburgh, then Champlain, New York. The collection contains correspondence, legal documents, financial documents, personal papers, ephemera, and photographs.
The collection contains minutes from organization meetings, newspaper clippings, show announcements, call for art posters, prints, photographs, both business related and personal correspondence including thank you notes and holiday greeting cards, newsletters from the organization, archive draft ideas, ledgers, ballots, material regarding the annual “Art on Lark” and “1st Friday” festivals, and fundraiser advertisements in various forms including posters and post cards. Also included are various business documents in relation to the Albany Institute including Deed of Gift paperwork, Bylaws, and Application for Tax Exemption.
The collection contains photographs, correspondence, newspaper clippings, trade publications, press releases, promotional material, price catalogs, receipts, and other ephemera related to the Hudson Valley Paper Company during its time of operation from 1875-2011.
Charles Argow Schade, a prominent Albany architect during the mid-20th Century, was born in Albany in 1910 to Catherine and William C. Schade, who was also an architect. Particularly known for his work on churches around Albany, he designed the Christian Education Building of the First Congregational Church of Albany in 1960, as well as the Freihofer Baking Plant addition in 1963. His father, William, was also a well-known designer of religious and residential properties. Two of his works were the Slingerlands United Methodist Church in 1871, and the St. Casimir’s Church Complex in Albany in 1896.