ALBANY, NY.- The New York State Museum announced the donation of a significant clock collection from historian and author G. Russell Oechsle. Featuring more than 80 rare clocks made in upstate New York between 1818 and 1927—with a strong concentration from the 1820s and 1830s—the collection offers a vivid window into a once-thriving regional industry shaped by the opening of the Erie Canal.
Now on view, the exhibition highlights selections from the donation, capturing the entrepreneurial spirit that fueled clockmaking workshops along the canal corridors. Some shops lasted only a few years; others prospered for decades. Together, these clocks showcase exceptional craftsmanship and reveal the social and economic forces that transformed communities across New York State.
Among the exhibition highlights are a striking 1834 shelf clock by Abner Jones of Bloomfield, N.Y., with a stenciled column case and three-drawer base, and a Baird 1 Advertising Clock, produced in Plattsburgh between 1890 and 1896 for the Diamond Black Leather Oil Co. of Cleveland, featuring an 8-day brass movement. These objects—along with others in the collection—exemplify the ingenuity and artistry of a forgotten regional industry…