Collections : [Albany Institute of History & Art]

Albany Institute of History & Art

Albany Institute of History & Art

125 Washington Ave
Albany, NY 12210, United States
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.

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Collection
Albany Art Union
The Albany Art Union was a commercial portrait photography studio, active from approximately 1897 to 1968, in Albany, New York. The studio changed ownership and locations several times over the years. Photographers took portrait photographs of individuals, families, business employees, and organization members. This collection contains documents, card files, negatives, and photographs.
Collection
Albany Bicentennial Commission
In 1886, Albany marked its bicentennial, based on the 1686 Dongan charter. From July 18-23, the city celebrated in numerous ways such as parades, sporting events, and fireworks shows. Two large-format programs, medals were struck, and a history of Albany was published to commemorate the event as well. The Citizens’ Bi-Centennial Committee was charged with planning the proper celebration of the event. The collection contains programs, ephemera, clippings, correspondence, logbooks, and scrapbooks.
Collection
New York organized a war council in 1940 to coordinate war-related efforts for local, state, and national defense during World War II. Beginning initially as a women’s organization, the Albany City and County War Council was formed in 1941 to coordinate efforts for the towns within Albany County. This collection contains administrative records, campaigns and projects efforts, publicity records, and index cards containing information on servicemen and women.
Collection
Virginia Farrell Mahigian
The Albany Civic Theater formed in 1955 when the Ilium Players of Troy and the Albany Dramatic Group joined. This collection contains Programs, Committee Meeting Minutes, and Education material related to the Albany Civic Theater.
Collection
Donald Eberle
This collection contains the records of the Albany Hardware and Iron Co., a wholesale hardware distributor in Albany, New York. The collection contains administrative records, photographs, catalogs, and scrapbooks, along with newspapers ads and articles on the company and the men who ran it.
Collection
The materials in this collection deal with the erection, in Albany’s Academy Park in 1928, of a memorial to the Albany-born, eminent scientist Joseph Henry (1797-1878), first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Members and officers of the Albany Institute were active in this project. Materials include correspondence of the memorial committee concerning fundraising, choice of a memorial location and sculptor, and the ceremony marking completion of the monument. Also included are letters to and from, and contracts with, the sculptor chosen, John Flanagan (1865-1952). Programs for and invitations to the inaugural ceremony are included, as is some biographical material on Joseph Henry.
Collection
Albany Institute of History & Art
The subjects of the collection are the letters and communications of Former Mayors of the City of Albany to others. This collection contains receipts, licenses, property deeds, supply queries, and correspondence.
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Chuck Miller
A collection of newspapers, sports yearbooks, programs for a variety of Albany-related sports including soccer, football, arena ball, ice hockey, and baseball. There is also a collection of Capital District Sports newspapers for 1997 and a collection of The Source, a weekly entertainment newspaper for 1997.
Collection
Albany Symphony Orchestra
The Albany Symphony Orchestra is a professional orchestra based in Albany, New York. This collection includes records of and recordings by the Albany Symphony Orchestra from composers such as Beethoven, Bach, Brahms, Mozart, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner.
Collection
This collection is composed of letters written by brothers Albert and Garrett Vander Veer to family members. Garrett and Albert were the fifth and seventh children, respectively, of Abraham Harris and Sarah (Martin) Vander Veer and were officers in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The majority of the letters are addressed to the Vander Veer’s sister and brother-in-law, Esther and John Craig.
Collection
Lewis, A.L.
Abraham Lincoln Lewis worked as an architect in the Albany, New York area from 1934 until 1985. Lewis began his career in 1934 with the New York State Department of Public Works (NYSDPW). After leaving that position in 1966, he worked for himself, and eventually formed his own company, A.L. Lewis Associated Architects, in 1970. Following a brief retirement from 1974-1981, Lewis returned to work, this time an employee of Harris A. Sanders Associates, where he remained until retiring in 1986. This collection contains architectural plans for Albany, New York area buildings, dating from 1954 to 1975. Materials are arranged by building name.
Collection
Lawson Annesley founded Annesley and Co. in Albany, New York in 1802. After a few years taking on different partners, Annesley’s sons took over the business, which remained headed by the family until 1909. The company was known for selling fine furniture, looking glasses, and artist’s supplies, and was often referred to as the “Albany Art Gallery.” Annesley and Co. closed in the 1940s. This collection contains a daybook, advertisements, and a price list.
Collection
Lawson Annesley founded Annesley and Co. in Albany, New York in 1802. After a few years taking on different partners, Annesley’s sons took over the business, which remained headed by the family until 1909. The company was known for selling fine furniture, looking glasses, and artist’s supplies, and was often referred to as the “Albany Art Gallery.” Annseley and Co. closed in the 1940s. This collection contains business records of Annesley and Co., and includes invoices for items received by the company from 1898 to 1900 and business correspondence from customers, suppliers and artists from 1905 to 1911.
Collection
Cornelia Hull Miller Spencer and Elizabeth Frances Hull
The Ashley/Van Alstyne/Fitch/Hull Family Papers contain the records of more than twenty-seven members of seven families connected by marriage over six generations whose lives were centered in Schodack Landing, a village along the Hudson River in Rensselaer County, New York. This collection contains correspondence, personal papers, financial papers, photographs, and scrapbooks.
Collection
The Banks Family Papers collection consists of personal and legal papers of Robert Lenox Banks and his family, primarily his daughter, Mary Decamp Banks Moore. These include correspondence to and from the Banks Family by local businessmen, politicians, such as New York Governor, John T. Hoffman, and William Vanderbilt, President of the Hudson River Railroad. The documents are mostly personal in nature, describing the private life of a prominent local family of the 19th Century. Also in this collection are photographs, genealogical information, and other items relating to the Banks, Lenox, and Corning families.
Collection
Bayard Urquhart Livingston, Jr.
Bayard Urquhart Livingston, Jr. (1881-1962) was born to Bayard Urquhart and Margaret L. Morris Livingston in Albany, New York. Livingston was related to a number of prominent Albany families, including the Patterson, Morris, and Schuyler families, and collected genealogical material related to them. Livingston was buried in New Vernon Cemetery in Morris County, New Jersey. This collection contains correspondence, genealogical information, deeds, and wills. The bulk of the collection is from 1741-1800.
Collection
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.
Collection
The biography vertical files contain varied information on individuals or families in and around Albany, New York. Folders may include such material as clippings, photocopies, pamphlets, etc., and are arranged by the surname of the individual or family.
Collection
William and Henry Blasie
The Blasie Family Papers are a collection of materials owned by Henry M. Blasie and relating to the Blasie family. William Blasie, Henry’s father and a Captain in the Civil War, was the original owner of most of the collection. The collection consists of news clippings, photo albums, photographs, and scrapbooks.
Collection
Gray family
James A. Gray founded the Boardman & Gray Piano Manufacturing company of Albany, New York in 1837, with the business expertise and financial support of his business partner, William G. Boardman. The company patented their own design for the Dolce Campana attachment for the Piano Forte, and enjoyed great renown, including designing a model for singer Jenny Lind. This collection includes books, community newsletters, correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, sheet music, and song books.
Collection
Ehrmann, Emma Boyd
James Boyd (1742-1832) and Jane MacMaster Boyd (1751-1831) arrived in Albany, New York, from Scotland in 1774. In 1796, James founded the Arch Street Brewery, which would later become the Albany Brewing Company. This collection contains correspondence, personal papers, and photographs.
Collection
Burdick, Joel Wakeman, 1853-
Joel W. Burdick accepted a position as a clerk with the D & H (Delaware and Hudson) Railroad Company in 1879, and moved with his wife to Albany, New York. He eventually rose to the position of passenger agent, and he and his wife traveled extensively throughout the United States and Canada. This collection contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs.
Collection
Bowers, Virginia B.
The collection contains audition posters for the years 1961-1984, performance posters for the years 1960-1987, the 1986 Albany High School 45th Anniversary Reunion program, 1969 reprints of Metropolitan Opera House Performance posters from 1907 and 1931, and four bound scrapbooks which contain letters, newspaper clippings, thank you letters, organization constitution, outline of plans for organization, photographs of performances and rehearsals.
Collection
The Capitol Hill Choral Society was a mixed choral group created by Judson Rand (conductor) in spring 1953, with its premiere performance on December 18, 1953. The Society’s constitution from 1953, states that it was created to educate both the members of the organization and the outside community through the study and artistic presentation of choral music of the highest quality. This collection contains songbooks, a photograph, and performance programs.
Collection
The collection consists of a random grouping of ambrotypes, daguerreotypes and tintypes; all photographic techniques popular in the United States from the late 1830’s to the turn of the century (19th into 20th). Most of the collection, like the predominant subject matter of these photographic processes, are portraits. Some landscape photography was done using each of the three photographic techniques; few survive. Landscape photography would blossom with the advent of the “paper process” which, though still cumbersome by today’s standards, was much less cumbersome than the equipment and process required, even for the tintype.
Collection
Clinton, C. A. (Charles Alexander), 1798-1861
The collection is composed of seven bound volumes compiled and written by Charles Alexander Clinton, the son of former New York Governor, DeWitt Clinton. Included in the collection is a copybook of letters drafted soon after his father’s death, a commonplace book, a volume of notes from a law class and four volumes called Flim Flams that contain newspaper clippings mostly dealing with his father’s political career.
Collection
Contains prints, photographs, and texts related to the planning of the Robert Burns statue in Washington Park Historic District (Albany, New York). Calverley researched Robert Burns’ true appearance, previous depictions, statues of Burns, statues of the intended style, and illustrated interpretations of Burns’ most famous poems. Information concerning the St. Andrew’s Society, who commissioned the statue, is included.
Collection
Stedman, Charles
Walter L. Palmer (1854-1932), the son of sculptor Erastus D. Palmer, was an Albany-based landscape painter. The correspondence in this collection relates to the settlement of his estate (the probate of which was handled by Albany attorney Charles S. Stedman (1874-1940)). Letters deal with such matters as insurance claims, sale of Palmer’s pictures, and efforts of his widow Zoe (1866-1939) to establish a Palmer prize, administered by the National Academy of Design.
Collection
Albany Institute of History and Art
The City Neighbors Project Collection includes materials collected between 1989 and 2001 and primarily contains documents relating to immigrants’ personal family lives, and community life in Albany. Items in this collection are primary research materials. A large body of materials documenting the administrative and organizational functions of the City Neighbors Project remains unprocessed as of July 2002. The research collection is divided into 4 series: Oral History Tapes; Oral History Documentation; Research Materials; and Photos.
Collection
Clarence Hamilton Corning
Clarence Hamilton Corning was born in 1834. A nephew of Erastus Corning, Clarence eventually became an iron merchant in Albany, New York. Corning fought for the Union during the Civil War, and was eventually wounded at Cold Harbor. Following the war’s end, he married Mary Catherine Libby in June 1866. They had one child, Howard. Clarence Corning died in Albany in July 1879. This collection contains military materials and ephemera.
Collection
Clarence Hamilton Corning was born in 1834. A nephew of Erastus Corning, Clarence eventually became an iron merchant in Albany, New York. Corning fought for the Union during the Civil War, and was eventually wounded at Cold Harbor. Following the war’s end, he married Mary Catherine Libby in June 1866. They had one child, Howard. Clarence Corning died in Albany in July 1879. This collection contains military materials and ephemera.
Collection
Congress Hall
Leatherbound guest register measuring 12 x 16 inches in worn condition. This registry contains guest signatures from Congress Hall between the years of 1874 to 1878, which was a hotel operated by Adam Blake, Jr., whose name might be familiar from the Kenmore Hotel, which he founded soon afterwards.
Collection
Consolidated Car-Heating Company (CCHC) was formed by the merger of two companies, McElroy Car Heating Company, Albany, New York, and Sewall Safety Car Heating Company, Portland, Maine. CCHC was incorporated in the State of West Virginia on June 24, 1889. This collection includes patent files, financial records, stockholder records, corporate records, legal files, and miscellaneous files.
Collection
Papers of several families related to John and Abigail Adams, including the families of Reverend William Smith, Richard Cranch, William Cranch, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Daniel Greenleaf, and John Greenleaf. This collection contains correspondence, bills of sale, maps, estate records, and property records.
Collection
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.
Collection
Button, Daniel E. (Daniel Evan), 1917-2009
Daniel Evan Button (1917-2009) was a Republican politician elected as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. After his landslide win for the 1966 election, Button once again ran and was re-elected to his seat on the House of Representatives as a representative of New York. He ran for a third term in 1970, but was ultimately defeated. This collection contains newspaper articles, letters, speeches, documents, photographs, and published works in his memory.
Collection
O'Connell, Daniel Peter, 1885-1977
Daniel P. O'Connell (1885-1977) was a leader of the Albany County Democratic party for over fifty years. This collection contains documents relating to his personal and family life, such as correspondence, invoices and receipts, and other miscellaneous documents.
Collection
Daughters of the American Revolution, Mohawk Chapter
The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in 1890 by women who had strong patriotic feelings, but were frustrated by their exclusion from organizations allowing only men to honor their patriotic ancestors. Eligibility in this organization is open to any woman age eighteen and older who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution. The charter for the Mohawk Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution was granted in April, 1895. Fifteen prominent women in Albany, New York began the organization. One of 126 chapters across New York State, the Mohawk Chapter NSDAR continues to be active in the Capital District and includes over seventy members. This collection contains historical information, membership lists and yearbooks, correspondence, printed materials, a few photographs, subject files, and scrapbooks.
Collection

Dibblee and Brown Records Inventory, 1822-1850 9 boxes and unboxed materials

Dibblee & Brown operated from the early 1820s to 1838 in Albany, New York. Located at the corner of State and Dock Streets, Dibblee & Brown were merchants, and commission and forwarding agents. They owned sloops, towboats, and canal boats, and chartered sloops and steamboats to transport goods and commodities on the Hudson River and Erie Canal. Partners included Allen Brown (1768-1852) and Henry Dibblee (1778-1840), while Silas and Stanton Brown managed the business in New York City. Elias Brown, son of Allen Brown and his wife Nancy, was a Hudson River pilot and captain of the steamboat North America.
Collection
Lathrop, Dorothy P. (Dorothy Pulis), 1891-1980
The Lathrop sisters, Dorothy Pulis Lathrop (1891-1980) and Gertrude Katherine Lathrop, (1896-1986) were from Albany, New York. Dorothy was a writer and illustrator of children’s books, while Gertrude was a sculptor, particularly of small animals. Their mother, Ida F. Pulis Lathrop, was a portrait, still life, and landscape artist. The Dorothy and Gertrude Lathrop Papers include correspondence, book lists, clippings, photographs and books to, from, and about Dorothy and Gertrude Lathrop.
Collection
Elisha Dorr (1764-1843), was born to Matthew and Elizabeth (Palmer) Dorr in Lyme, Connecticut. He was the first member of the Dorr family to reside in Albany, New York, where he arrived as a young man and dealt in the fur trade. Dorr was also involved with the First Presbyterian Church, alongside his wife, Elizabeth Brouer (1776-1837). This collection contains correspondence, legal documents, clippings, and receipts.
Collection
Edward Pierre Buyck (1888-1960) was a Belgian artist who immigrated to the United States and was active in the Slingerlands, New York, area. Buyck was known for painting portraits of prominent politicians, race horses, landscapes, and historical settings. In 1920, he married Mary Williard Vine, who was a landscape artist and interior designer. Much of Buyck’s work was lost during a fire in his studio in 1940. The collection contains biographical material, correspondence, exhibition catalogs, and scrapbooks. The donation also contained some items which have been separated and are housed in the Curatorial Department.
Collection
Edwards, Isaac, -1879
Isaac Edwards (1819-1879) was born in South Corinth, New York. He married Anna (1826-1907), a granddaughter of Ezra Ames, and had three children who survived to adulthood. Isaac eventually became a professor at the Albany Law School, served on the Albany Board of Public Instruction, and became a member of the Congregational Church. This collection includes clippings, essays, photographs, and other Edwards family-related materials.
Collection
Edwin Corning (1883-1934) was born in Albany, New York, and was one of the sons of Erastus and Mary Parker Corning. In 1908, he married Louise Maxwell, and together they had four children: Erastus II (1909-1983), Louise (1911-1954), Harriet (1916-1966), and Edwin Jr. (1919-1964). Edwin Corning served as Lt. Governor of New York from 1927-1928. This collection contains correspondence.
Collection
Mr. Weil apparently used film packs for his 4x5 shots and made his selection for printing after developing them. He also apparently used a 2-1/4 x 2-1/4 cameras at the same time, so that he has negatives of the same scene in a couple of formats and several different exposures. Mr. Weil also made several duplicate prints; some of which may have been made for commercial purposes; some for technical reasons, as he notes in various places different exposure times and paper types.
Collection
Erastus Corning I (1794-1872) was born in Norwich, Connecticut to Bliss Corning. He moved to Troy, New York at age 13 to work with an uncle, and moved to Albany at age 19 for a job in the mercantile business with James Spencer. Corning had multiple business interests during his life, including Erastus Corning & Co., which bought and sold iron products, involvement in numerous railroad companies, served as Mayor of Albany, a member of the New York Senate, and as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. He married Harriet Weld in 1819, and together, they had five children. This collection contains account books, business records, correspondence, financial records, and other materials.
Collection
Palmer, Erastus Dow, 1817-1904
Erastus Dow Palmer (1817-1904) was an American sculptor. Born in Pompey, New York, he and his family moved to Albany, New York, in 1849 when Palmer began working on large-scale sculptures. His sculpture, Angel at the Sepulchre (1865), remains in Albany. Palmer son’s Walter Launt Palmer (1854-1932), also became an artist, best known for his winter scenes. Following his death in 1904, Erastus Palmer was buried in the Albany Rural Cemetery. This collection contains correspondence, personal papers, and photographs.
Collection
Fleet's direct predecessor was the Providence Bank, in Providence, Rhode Island, formed in 1791. Through mergers over the years, it settled as Fleet Financial Group in 1992. After becoming FleetBoston in 1999, the company was bought out by Bank of America in 2004. This collection contains minutes, annual reports, newsletters, scrapbooks, photograph albums, photographs, and other business records.
Collection
Christoph, Florence A.
This collection contains the research files of Florence Christoph. Research notes are on various Albany families such as Winne, Schuyler and the Van Rensselaers. There are no specific dates for when the research was undertaken, but the estimated dates are from the 1960s through the early 2000s. The researched information dates as far back as the late 1600s through the early 1900s.
Collection
The Fonda Family were some of the early Dutch settlers in Albany, New York. Fonda relatives were also found in Schenectady and Saratoga counties, as well as some members becoming tenants of the Rensselaerswyck Patroon. This collection includes deeds, personal correspondence, bonds, and other legal documents.
Collection
This collection contains material regarding the Fort Orange Garden Club such as minutes and reports from meetings, genealogies, general histories, personal histories, membership lists, projects, flower shows, public works, newspaper articles, awards, magazines, scrapbooks, maps, memorabilia, photographs, and slides.
Collection
Simpson, Frank C.
Disbound scrapbook collection of documents, photographs, and ephemera related to Frank C. Simpson (1904 - 1971), a prominent member of the African American community in the Albany area, and his wife Wilhelmina Bright Simpson. Frank Simpson served in the Capitol for five governors and ended his career as mail superintendent. He founded the Arbor Hill Twilight League for Black baseball teams and was very active in the Israel African Methodist Episcopal Church, as well as social organizations.
Collection
Harmen Harmanse was the patriarch of the Gansevoort family in Albany, New York, arriving in the area by 1657. Although not the first Ten Eyck in America, Jacob C. Ten Eyck was the first to come to Albany, moving from Manhattan after 1654. The two families intermarried several times over the years, along with other Dutch families in the area. This collection includes correspondence, financial records, estate records, and other family-related information.
Collection
This collection includes manuscripts, letters, correspondences, compilations, circulars, and photographs relate to Edmond Charles Genet and his diverse career as diplomat, inventor, farmer, and correspondent with the leaders of American government, society, and scientific thought.
Collection
A collection of family papers from George Hornell and Ursula Jane (Boyd) Thacher and their three children, Margaret Euphemia, John Boyd and George Hornell. The bulk of the collection is correspondence to and from various family members between the 1830’s to the 1880’s. The collection has a limited amount of the children’s schoolwork and grades; financial papers concerning day-to-day living and educational expenses including numerous bill heads of Albany business from that period; and a limited amount of unidentified photographs. Lastly, the collection includes financial materials from the Albany Army Relief Bazaar in 1864. A list of who donated money and other items is included.
Collection
Payne, Georgeann Helen
Collected materials relating to the baseball and basketball career of George Payne, Jr., as well as his father George Payne, Sr. Collection consists of photographs, newspaper clippings, and correspondence dating from 1916 to 1969. This collection was given in memory of George A. Payne, Jr., by his daughter Georgeann Helen Payne.
Collection
Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880) was born in Greenfield, Saratoga County, New York. An American landscape painter and one of the Hudson River School artists, Gifford traveled extensively across New England and Europe for his subjects. This collection includes a scrapbook, correspondence, and a family genealogy. Seven sketchbooks and a paint box of Gifford’s were transferred to the Curatorial department.
Collection
Scott Dumont Goodwin (1845-1935) was the legal representative and attorney for a number of influential Albanians and others whose affairs and estates are represented in this collection. Also included is the correspondence and diaries of Lieutenant George Wait Goodwin U.S. Air Force, who was killed in France in 1918, and Edward S. Goodwin, Albany physician, Helen Goodwin Yale, and Louise Goodwin, who were all children of Scott Dumont Goodwin. This collection includes correspondence, diaries, accounts, and legal papers.
Collection
Ruth Gretchen Weeber (1913-1984) was an Albany, New York sketcher and painter of old Albany architecture. Her father Christian, developed the Weebermobile, and her sister, Marion, was a jewelry artist and designer. This collection includes photographs, exhibition information, memberships, awards, examples of work, and clippings.