The Kenmore Hotel was built in 1878 by Adam Blake (1830-1881). It was built at the corner of North Pearl Street and Columbia Street in Albany, New York. The hotel is the site of the well-known nightclub called the Rainbow Room, or Rain-Bo Room. The records here are operational records from the hotel and restaurant dating from 1912-1938.

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.

Weed, Parsons & Co. was an Albany, New York printing company.

John Quincy Adams Ward was born on June 29, 1830, in Urbana, Ohio. The fourth of eight children born to John Anderson (1783-1855) and Eleanor Macbeth Ward (1795-1856), one of his younger brothers was the artist, Edgar Melville Ward (1839-1915). Encouraged in his early art by local potter, Miles Chatfield, Ward became discouraged after attending a sculpture exhibition in Cincinnati in 1847. While living with his older sister Eliza (1824-1904) and her husband in Brooklyn, New York, Ward began training under sculptor Henry Kirke Brown (1814-1886), under whose tutelage he would remain from 1849-1856. In 1857 he set out on his own, making busts of men in public life. In 1861, Ward set up his own studio in New York City, where he dedicated himself to developing an American school of sculpture. Left a widower twice, Ward eventually married Rachel Smith (1849-1933) in 1906. She was instrumental in helping to get his work and papers placed in numerous institutions. During his lifetime, Ward created numerous public sculptures, including one of General Phillip Sheridan in Albany, New York, and he participated in and served on numerous boards. Ward died in New York City in 1910, and was buried in Oakdale Cemetery in Urbana, Ohio. This collection contains correspondence, business records, organizational records, photographs, clippings, sculpture plans, sketches, speeches, and a scrapbook.

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.

A collection of documents, photographs and samples of artwork relating to the life and work of Tom Dorsey, or Tom Two Arrows an Onondagan-adopted Lenni Lenape (Delaware) Indian and artist based in the Albany area.

This collection contains the correspondence between Launt Thompson (1883-September 1894) and his three children, a son, Lancelot C. Thompson, and two daughters, Mariette and Florence ”Flossy” Thompson, mostly in the form of letters addressed to Thompson from his children dating from 1880 to 1888. Along with these letters, the collection contains a series of drawings addressed to Thompson from his children dating from the same period, as well as “Mental Photographs” (a list of hypothetical questions which the children answered) dating from 1886. The collection also contains a letter, dated February 24, 1883 from a man named Bayard addressed to Launt Thompson regarding Thompson’s sculpture, Admiral Samuel Francis DuPont, (1884) located in Wilmington, Delaware.

John Boyd Thacher II (1882-1957), was the Mayor of Albany, New York from 1926-1941. The correspondence covers the Mayor’s activities on behalf of veteran’s organizations, Albany hospitals, social welfare, playgrounds and women’s organizations of the city during the period 1932-1939.

Papers, land records, of the Ten Eyck Family chiefly re: to the Coeymans Patent, Town of Coeymans, Albany County, New York

The Ten Broeck family was one of the most prominent and oldest families in Albany, New York, and were of Dutch descent. Wessel Ten Broeck came to the colony of New Netherland in 1626. His children were Wesselse, Dirck, Hendrick and Cornelia. Dirck would be one of the first aldermen of Albany. This collection contains correspondence, wills, inventories, certificates, promissory notes, land estate records, and genealogical records.