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All the United States New York State New York City Albany World’s Largest Nipper Statue
AO Edited

World’s Largest Nipper Statue

This giant monument of the RCA mascot is a beloved fixture in Albany, New York.

Albany, New York

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Ian Benjamin
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Nipper looks out over the Warehouse District on a clear February day.   ianrbenjamin / Atlas Obscura User
“His Master’s Voice.”   Francis Barraud/Public Domain
Eagle eyes can spot the name written on the collar.   ianrbenjamin / Atlas Obscura User
Nipper atop his perch.   Geotek/CC BY-SA 3.0
Nipper perched on roof parapet over RCA building entrance in 1969. Taken by Jack Boucher in 1969 for the Historic American Buildings Survey.   Jack Boucher
  JulsMaya / Atlas Obscura User
Detail of Nipper. Phot taken by Jack Boucher in 1969 for the Historic American Buildings Survey.   Jack Boucher
Good dog.   michellemobarrett / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Sitting atop a storage building in the North End neighborhood of Albany, New York, is a four-ton, 28-foot tall steel and fiberglass statue of Nipper, the canine mascot of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), the now-defunct consumer electronics behemoth.

According to the Albany Institute of History and Art, Nipper came to be perched atop the crenellated parapet in 1958 following renovation of the dilapidated concrete warehouse for use by RTA Corporation, an appliance distributor specializing in products by RCA. The statue was made in Chicago, shipped in five sections by rail, and attached to a metal frame on the roof with the aid of a 10-story crane.

Nipper is the largest of the four monumental terriers that once sat atop RTA’s distribution centers, and he’s the last dog to still exist on the building upon which he was originally installed. There were once enormous Nippers peering over the skylines of Chicago and Los Angeles, but those have since been demolished or removed.

The colossal canine is based on a real 19th-century terrier owned by Francis Barraud, a painter residing in Liverpool, England. The dog was named for his tendency to nip at visitors’ heels. One day Barraud saw the terrier listening intently to a windup cylinder phonograph and captured the moment in a painting. He then attempted to sell the rights to a number of companies, though none took any initial interest.

However, Barraud finally found an interested buyer. He was intending to borrow a brass horn from The Gramophone Company upon which to model a new version of the painting when the store’s manager mentioned that if he replaced the machine with a Berliner disc gramophone the company would purchase the rights. The image went on to become one of the most successful trademarks in merchandise history, known under the title, "His Master's Voice." It has since been used by a long succession of companies, including RCA.

Unlike his Baltimore lookalike, the Albany Nipper never had his head cocked to the bell of a gramophone. He has always been listening to the wind. Since the RTA facility closed its doors in the 1980s, affection for the oversized terrier has grown among local residents, who have adopted him as the city’s de facto mascot.  

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Giant Animals Dogs Statues World's Largest Animals

Know Before You Go

Take I-90 to I-787 South, get off at Exit 4B and take a right on Broadway. The Arnoff Moving and Storage building will be on the right in about 10 blocks. The building as at the corner of Broadway and Loudonville Road.

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Added By

ianrbenjamin

Edited By

zacharyjpowell6, Kerry Wolfe, JulsMaya, michellemobarrett

  • zacharyjpowell6
  • Kerry Wolfe
  • JulsMaya
  • michellemobarrett

Published

July 28, 2017

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Sources
  • http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-business/article/Albany-s-Nipper-building-redo-part-of-70-million-7251937.php
  • http://www.albanyinstitute.org/nipper.html
  • http://americacomesalive.com/2013/07/14/the-rca-dog-an-american-icon/
  • Vaclav Smil, Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 240
  • https://web.archive.org/web/20150924073551/http://www.designboom.com/history/nipper.html
  • http://www.rcaaudiovideo.com/history/
World’s Largest Nipper Statue
991 Broadway
Albany, New York, 12204
United States
42.664022, -73.742545
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