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 Photo of the Month

December 2002

Object ID:  1993.058.0004

Photographer:  McDonald & Sterry, Albany and Saratoga

Date:  ca. 1880

Stereograph view (one side pictured above) of Congress Park.  

Reverse of card notes the following:  Congress Park, at Saratoga, N.Y., greatly improved and beautified since the season of 1875, is one of the most attractive of rural pleasure grounds.  No park of equal size in the United States can be compared with it for beauty of natural scenery or elegance of architectural and artistic adornments.  It is the property of the Congress and Empire Spring Company, proprietors of the Congress and Columbian Springs, located within the Park, and of the Empire Spring and Saratoga Glass Works.

The Columbian Spring is a chalybeate mineral water, possessing active diuretic, tonic, and alternative properties, especially valuable in liver complaints, dyspepsia, erysipelas, and all cutaneous diseases.  As a tonic water, for frequent daily use, no spring is so popular as the Columbian.

The Congress Spring, discovered in 1792, is one of the most famous mineral springs in the world.  It is an aperient of cathartic water, highly carbonated, of agreeable taste, improving and invigorating the spirits, appetite, and general health in a remarkable manner.  Its medicinal effects have been tested for nearly a century, and its use is prescribed by physicians with the utmost confidence, after long knowledge of its great efficacy, and the entire comfort and safety with which it may be used.  To professional men and others whose occupations are sedentary, and to all sufferers from the various forms of bilious disorders, it is invaluable.

The reverse of the card continues with a mineral analysis of the waters.  Current staff of Brookside Museum strongly disagree that the waters have an agreeable taste, and have been quoted as stating they are "quite foul!"

Gift of Chris Morley

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