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The coat of arms of Albany, New York, is the heraldic symbol representing the city of Albany, the capital of the U.S. state of New York. The coat of arms is rarely seen by itself; it is almost always used in the city seal or on the city flag. The current coat of arms was adopted in 1789, although prior to that it was significantly simpler, ranging from stylized lettering to a caricature of a beaver. Included in the coat of arms are references to Albany's agricultural and fur-trading past. It is supported by a white man and an American Indian and is crested by a sloop. The coat of arms is meant to represent the "symbols of industry and its rewards to man and beast on land and sea".〔 ==History== Albany began as the Dutch fur-trading post Fort Orange in 1624. Around the fort grew the village of Beverwijck ((英語:Beaver District)), which was incorporated in 1652. In 1664, the English sacked New Netherland and Beverwyck was renamed ''Albany'' in honor of the Duke of York and Duke of Albany (later James II of England). When the city was incorporated by provincial governor Thomas Dongan in 1686 under the ''Dongan Charter'', it was empowered to have its own seal:
The first known use of the seal was on a deed from the city of Albany sold at auction. Signed by Albany's first mayor, Pieter Schuyler, the document was sealed with red wax, the design on which was an octagon with a monogram of the letters ALB in the center topped with a crown (see Figure 1). This document was found in 1886. This seal was again seen on a document from 1736, though that too was not found until 1886. The letters are presumed to be an abbreviation of the name of the city. However the meaning of the crown is unknown; it was noted for being "hardly a kingly crown, nor in shape like a coronet, the head attire of nobility".〔(Banks, Danaher, and Hamilton (1888), p. 416 )〕 Prior to 1752 (but after 1736), the seal had a beaver at center, with the letters "ALB" above it. This seal was replaced in 1752 with the abbreviation removed and replaced with "Albany" above the beaver and the year below as such:
The seal from 1752 is shown in Figure 2. The beaver honored Albany's past as an important fur trading port. Adding to the history of this seal, one historian states, "(seal ) displays the beaver, but looking in the original, more like a drowned cat than the fat and sleek animal, it was intended to represent. Neither the resolution nor the records state why the change was made."〔(Banks, Danaher, and Hamilton (1888), p. 419 )〕 In 1755 the original seal (Figure 1) was reinstated for use by the mayor in licensing businesses. So at this point the city had two seals, one corporate and one public. The earlier seal, however, was last seen in 1761 and the beaver continued as the sole city seal from then on.〔(Banks, Danaher, and Hamilton (1888), p. 420 )〕 The current seal was adopted in 1789 and first shows up in 1790, when Simeon De Witt, Albany's city surveyor, included the arms on his map of the city. An updated map from 1794 also includes the arms. Both versions include a full landscape in the upper portion of the shield including multiple beavers and trees, as opposed to just one beaver and tree in the current version. There is no documented reasoning for changing the seal from the beaver to the coat of arms, and the coat of arms itself "seems to () no record authority" making it in any way official.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Coat of arms of Albany, New York」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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