People and steamboats: A bygone era remembered

by | Mar 16, 2023 | Photography, Shipping

Save for a few survivors, the steamboats of yore have long vanished. Gone are their captains and passengers, the sound of their whistles, and the fumes from their smokestacks. The ghosts of the past, however, linger on in old photographs to tell their stories.

A Mississippi River landing, Memphis, Tennessee, c. 1906
Courtesy of the Library of Congress, USA

S.S. City of Peterborough, an excursion steamer on the Otonabee River, Ontario, c. 1900
Courtesy of Musée McCord Stewart

High water, Montreal harbour, Quebec, c. 1870
Courtesy of Musée McCord Stewart

Men and women on steamboat Astatula, 1893
Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida

Steamship Sultana, Helena, Arkansas, 1865
Courtesy of Flickr / Mike Goad

Play & download this old-time song:

STEAMBOAT (Blow Your Whistle Again)

Tilbury Steamer on the River Thames, 1883
Courtesy of The National Archives UK

Paddle steamboat Westward Ho bound from Bristol to Ilfracombe, 1900
Courtesy of The National Archives UK

Captain Henry D. DeGrove with his son, Henry Jr., standing in front of the pilot house of the May Garner — Jacksonville, Florida, 1910
Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida

The Chesapeake, a U.S. Mail steamboat, 1887
Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution

Arrival of a steamer in Konstanz, 1906
Courtesy of Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

~ Barista Uno

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