ALBANY, a city of the United States, capital of the state of New York and of the county of Albany, picturesquely situated in a beautiful and fertile country on the western bank of the Hudson, 145 miles from New York. It is, for an American city, irregularly laid out, and much of its architecture is poor, although it contains several very fine buildings, and many of its more recently made streets are broad and handsome. The Capitol, a brown stone edifice, 115 feet by 90, built in 1807, faces a square called Capitol Park; and opposite it, on the eastern side of the square, are the State Hall and City Hall, both constructed of white marble. There are several beautiful churches, including a large Roman Catholic cathedral. Among the literary and scientific institutions of Albany may be mentioned the university, incorporated in 1852, giving instruction in most branches of education, especially practical science and law; a medical college; an academy, and other schools of various grades; a large observatory; the state library, with about 90,000 volumes; and the Albany Institute for the collection and diffusion of scientific information. Albany is an important centre of trade, being situated at the point where the united Erie and Champlain canals join the Hudson, and possessing good railway communication with most cities of the United States. The chief articles of commerce are timber, wheat, barley, wool, and tobacco, enormous quantities of which, especially of the first-mentioned, pass through the city annually. Besides its transit trade, its numerous foundries, its breweries, carriage and hat manufactories, and tanneries are of importance. In 1873, 536 vessels (83 sailing and 352 unrigged vessels and 101 steamers), of 68,682 tons, belonged to the port. Albany was founded by ...the Dutch in 1623, and is thus one of the oldest European settlements in the United States, dating sixteen years after that of Jamestown in Virginia. It was captured by the British in 1664, who changed its name from Beaverwyck or Williamstadt in honour of the Duke of York and Albany. It received its charter in 1686, and became the capital of the state of New York in 1797. It is governed by a mayor and twenty aldermen, and is divided into ten wards. Population in 1870, 69,422; number of families, 14,105; and of dwellings, 8748.
ALBANY, Louisa Maria Caroline, Countess of, daughter of Prince Gustavus Adolphus of Stolberg-Gedern, was born at Mons on the 27th Sept. 1753, and assumed the title of Albany in 1772, when she married the Pretender, Charles Edward, grandson of James II. of England. Her husband was much older than herself, and their union proved very unhappy. There were no children, and the Pretender, who was a confirmed drunkard, treated his wife with such brutality that her health and even her life were endangered. In 1780 she obtained a legal separation, and entrusted herself to the care of her husband’s brother, the Cardinal of York, who placed her in a convent, and afterwards removed her to his own house at Rome. Here she was frequently visited by the poet Alfieri, who made her the object of what seems to have been the only pure attachment of his life, and who, according to his own avowal, was indebted to her influence for all that was best in his works. (See Alfieri.) In 1788 she was freed from her bonds by the death of the Pretender, and in the same year she is said to have been secretly married to Alfieri. For the remainder of her life she resided at Florence, where she continued to be known as Countess of Albany, and distinguished herself as a patroness of literary men and artists. Alfieri died at her house in 1803, and in 1810 she caused a monument to his memory, by Canova, to be erected in the church of San Croce. With the death of the Cardinal of York in 1807 the Stuart line became extinct, and the countess, who died on the 29th January 1824, was the last who was known by the name of Albany. She was buried beside Alfieri in the church of San Croce.
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