Since its inception in 1981, the Colonial
Albany Social History Project has prided itself on its focus!
The project intends to make substantial and original contributions
to the history of the people of colonial Albany by concentrating on
its defined study population - namely
on the lives of those 16,000 men, women, and children within the setting
that became and is
the city of Albany.
In other words, look for us to begin to illuminate and
perhaps even suggest answers to questions
relating to every person, place, and thing germane to the early Albany
story. The city of Albany that is! We cannot begin to take responsibility
for the historic "Albanys" beyond
our defined perameters.
That said, out of necessity (we believe), we have posted a number
of features on places and things and people
even that relate to our mission but are technically beyond the scope
of our research. First, we claim no original contribution and/or insight
on any of these topics. They appears on this website to help explicate
our early Albany story. Beyond that, we hold no original resources
that relate to those things we define as "Not Albany."
A number of biographical, geographical, and descriptive features
appear on the pages of this website that fall into the "not Albany"
category. Perhaps - something on every web page. These are intended to help explain the actual subjects
but have not been accorded much priority in their development. That
said, some are quite substantial
and will continue to evolve to better support our mission to shed
light on the people of colonial Albany and their world.
