Albany Institute of History & Art

The Albany Institute is dedicated to collecting, preserving, interpreting, and promoting interest in the history, art, and culture of Albany and the Upper Hudson Valley. The museum achieves this mission through its collections, exhibitions, education programs, library, research projects, publications, and other programs offered to the general public. Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute of History & Art is one of the oldest museums in the United States. It also is the major repository for the region's heritage, with nationally significant collections. The genesis of the Albany Institute of History & Art began with The Society for the Promotion of Agriculture, Arts, and Manufactures, founded in New York City in Federal Hall. Supported by the New York state legislature, to which it served as an informational advisor, the society met to improve the state’s economy through advances in agricultural methods and manufacturing technologies. In accordance with the condition that they meet where the legislature convened, the society moved to Albany in 1797, when it became the state capital. The Institute’s museum and library holdings form the best collections in the United States documenting the life and culture of the Upper Hudson Valley region from the late seventeenth century to the present day. Although the Institute is famous for its significant Hudson River school paintings, the broad scope of its collections includes fine arts, furnishings, personal objects, documents, manuscripts, photographs, and personal papers used by people of all ages, social classes, economic conditions, and cultural groups. Long-term exhibitions include: “Ancient Egypt,” “Nineteenth-Century American Sculpture: Erastus Dow Palmer, Launt Thompson, Charles Calverley,” “Sense of Place: Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Sculpture,” and “Traders and Culture: Colonial Albany and the Formation of American Identity.”