Outside observers who came to Albany during its first two hundred years have left us their impressions and observations. Traditionally, their accounts have been central resources in the writing of early Albany history. Early on, the Colonial Albany Project began to experience great difficulty in reconciling outsider outlooks with the Albany that emerged from our comprehensive sweep of community based resources. Nevertheless, those narratives are extremely interesting and bear repeating. Links have been arranged chronologically. 1643 Isaac Jogues 1680 Jasper Danckaerts 1695 Reverend John Miller 1700s Reverend William Burgiss 1749 Peter Kalm 1760s Anne Mc Vickar Grant 1768 Journal of a Quebec Merchant (John Lees's description - summer 1768) 1774 Journal of Abraham Lott (trip up the Hudson - summer 1774) 1774 A Tour Through Part of the North Provinces of America, 1774-1775, by Patrick M'Robert (first printed for the author in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1776). Republished in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography (April 1945); and offprinted individually by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Mc Robert noted the farm of newcomer John Tunnicliff. 1776 Journal of Charles Carroll (April-May 1776) - Diplomatic mission with Benjamin Franklin and others to Montreal (Albany April 7) 1782: Yankee schoolteacher Simeon Baldwin in Albany (posthumous memoir) 1783-1831 "Memoirs of an emigrant: The journal of Alexander Coventry, M.D.; in Scotland, the United States and Canada during the period 1783-1831," (working title) transcription of a lengthy document not readily available.(Typescript reportedly at AIHA, NYSL, and other Albany area libraries: 1978) 1787 The American Journals of Lt. John Enys, edited by Elizabeth Cometti (Syracuse, 1976), pp. 183-88. 1789 Men and Times of the Revolution, the memoir of Elkanah Watson as completed and presented by his son in 1856. 1790s Levi Beardsley's (1785-1857) Reminiscences of a trip by sleigh with a load of wheat. 1793 Castorland Journal, the journal of French adventurers Simon Desjardins & Pierre Pharoux which also chronicles their time in Albany 1794 Travels in New England and New York, by Timothy Dwight, recalling his travels which included a trip to Albany in 1794. First published in four volumes between 1821 and 1823. 1800 Albany-related portion of John Maude's "Journal" (June 25 - July 1) 1810 Description of Albany about 1810 by Englishman John Melish.
1831 "Brief History of the City of Albany"  Visitors: These outsider observations are much more obviously descriptive than the community-based resources that together form the backbone of the portrait of Albany and its people that emanates from the work of the Colonial Albany Social History Project. Literate and in-print, they have been much more accessible than the scattered records we use every day! Our goal of presenting leads to all relevant observations is ongoing! This bibliography from Wikisource is entitled "American History Told by Contemporaries" and represents a logical starting point.
Coventry: Reference to a copy in the Walter H. Bradish Papers 1862-1907, "Included is a typescript copy of the diary, ca. 1785-1830, of his ancestor, Alexander Coventry, a Scot who emigrated to America in 1785, which includes a description of his trip." Collection transferred to the New York Public Library from the NYG&B perhaps in 2008.
Notes: Look for descriptions by Isaac Jogues, William Burgiss, delegates to the Albany Congress in 1754, Governor Tryon, Thomas Anburey, and others! first posted 3/25/03; last revised 7/11/17 |