Albany and the Gilded Age

The 23rd Annual Albany History Fair

Sunday May 1, noon to 5PM

FREE

The Albany History Fair returns to Cherry Hill as an in-person, real-time event! Public audiences and heritage partners will once again gather to explore the Capital City’s fascinating history.

This year’s theme is Albany and the Gilded Age…. From exuberant architecture and industrial tycoons to bluebloods, immigrants and labor unrest.

You can expect scholar’s talks, special tours, costume installations, period music by Friends Union, hands-on activities on “Getting Dressed in the Gilded Age,” games and family activities, vendors, and a teaser performance of one scene from Swept Clean, an original play by Krysta Dennis set at Cherry Hill in 1884.

Here’s a sneak peek at the lineup:
12:30: “Swept Clean” teaser performance
1:00 Hon. Jack McEneny discusses Immigration, Labor & Politics in Gilded Age Albany
2:00 City Historian Tony Opalka presents Albany’s 19th-Century Trolley System

3:00 Julie O’Connor & Lorie Wies discuss Victorian Albany’s Middle Class Black Community
4:00 Dr. Christopher Brellochs, performer, music historian, and consultant on Julian Fellowes The Gilded Age, discusses Gilded Age Music