List of people associated with Albany County, New York

This is a list of notable people whose lives were significantly associated with Albany County, New York.

18th century

 * Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710–1792), born in Albany; politician who supported the American Revolution; presiding officer of the first New York provincial congress in 1775
 * Philip Livingston (1716–1778), born in Albany; local merchant; delegate to the Continental Congress; signer of the Declaration of Independence
 * William Livingston (1723–1790), born in Albany; newspaper publisher; member of the Continental Congress; first Governor of New Jersey
 * Henry Bogart (1729–1821), signer of the Sons of Liberty Constitution in 1766; elected representative of the first ward on the Albany Committee of Correspondence
 * Abraham Cuyler (1742–1810), born in Albany; former mayor of Albany, merchant, land owner and British loyalist
 * John Tayler (1742–1829), businessman and politician; represented Albany County in the New York State Assembly (1777–1779, 1780–1781, and 1785–1787); appointed City Recorder (Deputy Mayor) of Albany in 1793; justice of the Court of Common Pleas in 1797; represented Albany in the New York Senate 1802–1813; Lieutenant Governor (1811-1822); Acting Governor in 1817; died in Albany and is buried in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands
 * Peter W. Yates (1747–1826), lawyer and Continental Congressman; grew up in Albany and developed a prosperous legal practice there; served on the Albany City Council and in the county militia at the start of the American Revolution; represented Albany in the New York State Assembly and the Continental Congress
 * Peter Gansevoort (1749–1812); colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War; born and died in Albany
 * Isaac Mitchell (1759–1812), born in Albany; journalist, author, and editor of the Poughkeepsie Guardian, Albany Republican Crisis, and Poughkeepsie Republican Herald
 * Alexander Boyd (1764–1857), U.S. Congressman; born in Albany
 * James Cochran (1769–1848), U.S. Congressman from New York; journalist; born in Albany
 * Jacob Cuyler (1773–1854), born in Albany; British officer involved in the settlement of the 1820 Settlers to the Eastern Cape, South Africa
 * Harmanus Bleecker (1779–1849), U.S. Congressman; born in Albany
 * Herman Knickerbocker (1779–1855), U.S. Congressman; born in Albany
 * John Duer (1782–1858), born in Albany; jurist; author; chief judge of New York Superior Court
 * Harmanus Peek (1782–1838), born in Albany; U.S. Congressman from New York
 * Gerrit Y. Lansing (1783–1862), born in Albany; U.S. Congressman; bank and insurance company president
 * John K. Kane (1795–1858), born in Albany; politician, attorney, and jurist
 * Joseph Henry (1797–1878), born in Albany; inventor of low- and high-resistance galvanometers; first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
 * Robert Sanders (1705–1765), mayor of Albany from 1750 to 1754

19th century

 * James Montgomery Bailey (1841–1894), journalist and author; founder of newspapers Danbury News and Danbury Evening News; native of Albany
 * William Bliss Baker (1856–1886), landscape artist in the Realism movement
 * William Barnes Sr., attorney and Republican Party organizer
 * Herman Bendell (1843–1932), physician; Civil War surgeon; Superintendent of Indian Affairs Arizona Territory; American Consul Elsinore, Denmark; native of Albany
 * James H. Blessing (1837–1910), mayor of Albany from 1900 to 1901
 * William Henry Bogart (1810–1888), member of the New York Legislature; author
 * Joseph Bradford Carr (1828–1895), born in Albany; Union Army general; Secretary of State of New York
 * Robert Carter (1819–1879), born in Albany; author and editor; involved in the foundation of the Republican Party
 * Nanette Comstock (1866–1942), born in Albany, stage actress
 * Roscoe Conkling (1829–1888), United States Congressman and United States Senator from New York; born in Albany
 * William Jermyn Florence (1831–1891), born in Albany; actor; comedian; improvisationalist
 * Joseph R. Grismer (1849–1922), actor, playwright and theatrical producer; born in Albany
 * Abraham Oakey Hall (1826–1898), born in Albany; mayor of New York City; author
 * Learned Hand (1872–1961), United States judge and judicial philosopher
 * Henry James Sr. (1811–1882), born in Albany; Swedenborgian theologian; father of William James, Henry James, and Alice James
 * Lucy Stedman Lamson (1857–1926), businesswoman, educator
 * Daniel Manning (1831–1887), born in Albany; journalist and later United States Secretary of the Treasury
 * Homer Dodge Martin (1836–1897), born in Albany; painter whose talent was not recognized until his death
 * James Campbell Matthews (1844–1930), New York's first African-American law school graduate and judge of Albany's Recorder's Court
 * John McKeon (1808–1883), born in Albany; district attorney for New York County and Southern New York; US Congressman from New York
 * Henry B. Metcalfe (1805–1881), born in Albany; prosecuting attorney, judge, and US Congressman from New York
 * John Pitkin Norton (1822–1852), born in Albany; chemist and educator; helped found the Sheffield Scientific School
 * Emily Sullivan Oakey (1829–1883), born in Albany; educator, author, poet, hymnist
 * John Rathbone Oliver (1872–1943), born in Albany; psychiatrist, medical historian, author, and priest
 * Annie L. Y. Orff (1861–1914), journalist; magazine editor and publisher
 * William Page (1811–1885), born in Albany; considered the leading American painter of his time
 * Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809–1873), lawyer, judge, and U.S. congressman; born in Rensselaerville; the county's district attorney, 1838–1841; served on the New York Supreme Court, Third Judicial District (1861–1869) seated in Albany, then on the New York Court of Appeals (1870–1873); was lost at sea; his cenotaph is in Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands
 * Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1838–1909), New York state court judge and U.S. Supreme Court justice; son of Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809–1873)
 * Wheeler Hazard Peckham (1833–1905), lawyer and defeated nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court; son of Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809-1873)
 * Cy Seymour (1872–1919), native of Albany, major league baseball player
 * Theobald Smith (1859–1934), born in Albany; epidemiologist, bacteriologist, pathologist and professor
 * Gilbert R. Spalding (1812–1880), showman and circus owner
 * Frances E. Townsley (1850–1909), Baptist minister
 * Luther Tucker (1802–1873), Publisher of The Cultivator and Country Gentleman
 * Oren Elbridge Wilson (1844–1917), mayor of Albany from 1894 to 1895
 * Alice Ames Winter (1865–1944), litterateur, author and clubwoman

20th century

 * Philip Amelio (1977–2005), actor and teacher; graduated from the University at Albany and received a master's degree in education from The College of Saint Rose in Albany
 * Norman C. Armitage (1907, as Norman Cudworth Cohn–1972), Olympic medalist saber fencer
 * Rita Chatterton (b.1957), professional wrestling referee
 * William Barnes Jr. (1866–1930), Newspaper publisher and Republican Party leader
 * Talor Battle (b.1988), basketball player who is currently an assistant coach for Northwestern Wildcats
 * Ann Curless (b. 1963), Exposé singer
 * Edmund L. Daley (1883–1968), U.S. Army major general
 * Kirsten Gillibrand (b. 1966), current U.S. Senator from New York since 2009; born in Albany
 * Kevin Huerter (b.1998), National Basketball Association (NBA) player for the Sacramento Kings
 * Mary Mellish (1890–1955), soprano at the Metropolitan Opera; born and died in Albany
 * Howard C. Nolan Jr. (1932–2023), former member of the New York State Senate
 * Martha Quinn (b. 1959), an original video jockey on MTV
 * Emanuel Rackman (1910–2008), born in Albany, Modern Orthodox rabbi; President of Bar-Ilan University
 * Andy Rooney (1919–2011), radio and television writer; 60 Minutes
 * Shoenice, (b. 1969 as Christopher Schewe), American YouTuber and competitive eater
 * Israel Tsvaygenbaum (b. 1961), Russian-American artist
 * Anthony Vinciquerra (b.1954), former CEO of Fox Networks and current CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, born in Albany.
 * William Kennedy (b. 1928), writer and journalist; wrote several books based in Albany, including Pulitzer Prize-winning Ironweed.

Alphabetical index

 * Philip Amelio (1977–2005)
 * James Montgomery Bailey (1841–1894)
 * William Bliss Baker (1856–1886)
 * William Barnes Jr. (1866–1930)
 * William Barnes Sr. (1824–1913)
 * Talor Battle, basketball player who last played for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli League
 * Herman Bendell (1843–1932)
 * Harmanus Bleecker (1779–1849)
 * William Henry Bogart (1810–1888)
 * Alexander Boyd (1764–1857)
 * Joseph Bradford Carr (1828–1895)
 * Robert Carter (1819–1879)
 * James Cochran (1769–1848)
 * Roscoe Conkling (1829–1888)
 * Edmund L. Daley (1883–1968)
 * John Duer (1782–1858)
 * William Jermyn Florence (1831–1891)
 * Peter Gansevoort (1749–1812)
 * Abraham Oakey Hall (1826–1898)
 * Learned Hand (1872–1961)
 * Joseph Henry (1797–1878)
 * Henry James Sr. (1811–1882)
 * John K. Kane (1795–1858)
 * Herman Knickerbocker (1779–1855)
 * Gerrit Y. Lansing (1783–1862)
 * Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710–1792)
 * Philip Livingston (1716–1778)
 * William Livingston (1723–1790)
 * Daniel Manning (1831–1887)
 * Homer Dodge Martin (1836–1897)
 * John McKeon (1808–1883)
 * Henry B. Metcalfe (1805–1881)
 * Isaac Mitchell (1759–1812)
 * Howard C. Nolan Jr. (1932–2023)
 * John Pitkin Norton (1822–1852)
 * William Page (1811–1885)
 * Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1809–1873)
 * Rufus Wheeler Peckham (1838–1909)
 * Wheeler Hazard Peckham (1833–1905)
 * Harmanus Peek (1782–1838)
 * Cy Seymour (1872–1919)
 * John Tayler (1742–1829)
 * Peter W. Yates (1747–1826)