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.
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.
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.
This collection includes documents relating to the Albany Burgesses Corp (1833-1879) as well as personal papers of several individuals including Carpenter Conklin, Stephen P. Hunt, William Boggs, Mary Bruce, and Laura Hardy.
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.
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.
Records and correspondence of this charitable organization aimed at providing relief to Ireland, and to a lesser extent the highlands of Scotland, during the Irish Potato Famine, 1845-1850.
Calendar records are listings of particular cases held on a certain date. The Albany County Court Calendar Records here list cases according to date. This collection contains calendar records.
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.
This collection contains correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings from both Albany, New York and the Netherlands relating to the “Albany Helps Nijmegen” campaign of 1947.
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.
This collection includes a variety of Albany-related ephemera such as invitations, tickets, notices, trade cards, currency, greeting cards and envelopes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.