Artist's notes...

work I had no idea how difficult it would be to produce. There are nearly 300 buildings depicted, many of them in intricate detail. The entire project required hundreds of hours of work and spanned seven months.
          The lengthy research phase consisted of gathering and cataloging hundreds of period photographs from the Morris Gerber and Albany Institute of History & Art collections. Numerous pencil drawings were then done in progressively larger scales.
          One of the most interesting stories I came across on this project dealt with Abraham Lincoln’s visit to Albany in 1861. The president and his entourage were lodged at Albany’s largest and most famous hotel, the Delavan House, located on Broadway, a few blocks north of State Street.  On February 8, 1861, President Lincoln passed down Broadway on his way to address the state legislature on Capitol Hill. In a small hotel room two blocks away, overlooking the presidential parade, sat John Wilkes Booth. The actor was in Albany to perform in a Shakespearean play and was staying at the Stanwix Hotel. Years later, there was speculation that Booth may have been stalking Lincoln while he was in Albany.