Their whistles have long fallen silent. The smokes from their funnels are no more. Yet, the charm of steamboats that inspired such wonderful songs as Steamboat Bill and Lazy ‘Sippi Steamer lives on in old postcards. Some of these postcards, like the ones pictured below, are more than a century old but the beauty of the steamers they depict still shines through.
The vast reach of plank wharves remained unchanged, and there were as many ships as ever: but the long array of steamboats had vanished; not altogether, of course, but not much of it was left.
— Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
Click on the images to magnify them.
Excursion Boats At The Foot Of Jackson Street
Postcard from 1909
Courtesy of Joe Haupt on Flickr
Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 licence
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