Uncle Sam's chamber pot, cannons, tobogganing coat and more in "50 Objects" exhibit

The 15 youngsters participating in a school break program fashioned clay models and created fictional backstories for real-life objects on display.

Giuliana Palmieri, a first-grader at St. Pius X School in Loudonville, incorporated clay, bottlecaps and drawings to create a mash-up of three objects on display: a Revolutionary War-era cannon, a 1940s Freihofer's window sign and a painted plaster sculpture of Albany's top dog, Nipper (loaned by Nancy Carey Cassidy, daughter of the late Gov. Hugh L. Carey).

While the kids created their homages with Play-Doh and felt-tip markers, upstairs in the third-floor gallery Rebecca Shapiro made her first visit home in five years.

Shapiro paused at Technicolor renderings from 1960 of Empire State Plaza, which depicted a glittering downtown embracing Gov. Nelson Rockefeller's vision in white marble, with a massive arch, bandshell and other elements that never made the final cut.

There will be quibbles among local history buffs about the 50 objects chosen, which include the obvious: items from the Dutch patroons, state Capitol, Saratoga Race Course, New York Central Railroad and the General Electric Co.

None of the kids chose the chamber pot, but what a scatological field day they could have had with that object.