Re Nancy Robertson's question regarding the origin of the nickname "Empire
State.
Nancy, you are wrong in thinking this is an easy question to answer.  It is
about as easy as asking for the origin of the nickname "The Big Apple" for
New York City.  There are lots of guesses, none easy to validate, and
probably all right or wrong.
        I have spent considerable time researching the origin of the term "Empire
State" for a new History of New York State which I have been editing for
five years under the auspices of the New York State Historical Association.
 The long manuscript is now being read by a press.  There are six authors,
covering various chronological periods.  I, too, naively asked the author
of the section, 1820 -- 1860 to include a brief footnote as to how the term
originated. He had difficulty, so I began researching it.  There are
various explanations, none satisfactory.
        One explanation is that George Washington first originated the phrase.
The editors of the Washington Papers tell me that on April 10, 1785,
Washington sent as an enclosure  to New York City mayor James Duane his
reply to an earlier address that Duane had sent to Washington on December
16, 1784.  In it Washington referred to New York State as "the Seat of the
Empire." Note: he did not use the phrase "Empire State."  Someone else
volunteered that Washington in the 1790s was at Saratoga Springs and
traveled to Little Falls where he noted that the Mohawk Valley  and River
were natural gateways to the West, whereupon he told Governor Clinton that
New York State was a "Pathway to Empire."  Again, note, he did not use the
phrase "Empire State."  There was no source given to this speculative
answer to my question.
        In Volume 6 of Alexander Flick's multivolume history of New York State,
the concluding chapter is entitled :New York Becomes the Empire State,
noting on p. 319 that as early as 1819 New York was being referred to as
the "Empire State" because its population had exceeded that of Virginia,
but no source is given. Flick added that by the time the Erie Canal was
completed, the name Empire State was universally acknowledged and accepted.
(No source given for this statement).  In 1849, a book was written by one
R. L. Christopher called an "Empire State Book of Practical Forms" and in
1872, a Mrs. S.S. Colt authored a travel book entitled "The Tourist's Guide
to the Empire State." In 1888,  Benson J. Lossing entitled his book "The
Empire State: A Compendious History of the Commonwealth of New York."  In
1891, the New York Central introduced a fast train between New York City
and Buffalo and called it "The Empire State Express."
        David Ellis wrote an article in NEW YORK HISTORY, Vol. LVI (1975) entitled
"Rise of the Empire State," but he does not give the origin of the term..
Another  explanation is that New York City first began being called the
"Empire City" because of its commercial ascendancy after the completion of
the Erie Canal, and the state adopted the name from the city.
        From my view, the last word was said by Paul Eldridge in a book titled
CROWN OF
EMPIRE: THE STORY OF NEW YORK STATE (1957) where on page 14, he raised the
question humorously: "Who was the merry wag who crowned the State. . .(as
the Empire State)?  New York would certainly raise a monument to his
memory, but he made his grandiose gesture and vanished forever."
        Nancy: If anyone gives you a better or more authoritative answer to this
question, please let me know and I will put it in the book.

Milton M. Klein, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (office e-mail
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