Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: steamboats

An elaborate nineteenth-century advertising trade card for Buchu-Paiba, a patent medicine that supposedly cured kidney, bladder, and urinary diseases. Buchu-Paiba "'Buchu-Paiba,' quick, complete cure [for] all annoying kidney diseases, $1." Words in the water: "Rescued from kidney and bladder affections." Flags: "Rough on Rats" and "Wells' Health Renewer." "Mayer, Merkel & Ottmann, Lith., N.Y." Excerpts from the ads printed on the back of the card: "Mother Swan's Worm Syrup. For fever, restlessness, worms, constipation. Tasteless. Perfectly harmless, but the most effective worm destroyer extant." "Rough on Rats. 15c boxes. Clears out rats, mice, roaches, flies, mosquitos, bed bugs, insects, skunk, weasel gophers, chipmunks, moles, musk rats, etc." "Wells' Rough on Corns. Complete cure." "'Bucha-Paiba.' Quick, complete cure, all annoying kidney and urinary diseases. $1.00 at druggists." "E. S. Wells, manufacturer and proprietor, Jersey City, N.J. U.S.A."

"Steamboat Mary, Wrightsville and Columbia, Pa. B. D. Beittel , Columbia, Pa." An early postcard of Steamboat Mary, which evidently ran on the Susquehanna River between Wrightsville, York County, and Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The card dates to the first decade of the twentieth century (circa 1907, based on the postmark of another copy I spotted elsewhere on the web). In the background is the Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge , a steel truss bridge that was built in 1896. It carried railroad and automobile traffic over the river until it was dismantled in 1963.

"Excursion to Ft. Madison, given by Benevolent Union. Steamer W. W. Saturday, June 29, 1907. Adults, 50c."

A child's ticket for a steamboat trip on the Schuylkill River between Reading, Pennsylvania, and the Klapperthal Pavilion, which was located outside of town and contained a dance floor, restaurant, and other amenities. The back of the ticket is stamped "Jul. 4, 1896." Captain John A. Hiester (1842-1922) built boats and ran steamboats on the Schuylkill for many years. See also Reading Steamboat Company Ticket, Reading, Pa., to High's Grove . Steamboats Iona, Golden Eagle, and Atlantic Reading to Klapperthal and return (down) (up). Capt. John A. Hiester. Children's ticket.

"Inman Steamship Company. The Major & Knapp Lith. Co., N.Y." Rubberstamped on front: "Chas. W. Hamilton, Brimfield, Illinois. Brimfield Bank." A Victorian-era trade card advertising the Inman Steamship Company , a British passenger shipping company.

For more information, see the full version of this check:

"The Columbia National Bank. No. 4159. Columbia, Penna., May 21, 1876. Pay to the order of C. J. Nourse, Jr. One and 80/100 dollars. $1.80. To Importers & Traders National Bank of New York. S. W. Shoch, Cashier. United States Internal Revenue, Two Cents. 2. National Bank Note Company, New York." Mouse over the image above to see an enlargement of the vignette of steamboats and sailing ships in the upper left-hand corner.

"Hudson River Day Line Pass, 1899. E. D. Bennett, G.S., Bennington & Rutland Ry. E. E. Olcott, general manager. 412." E. D. Bennett, the general superintendent of the Bennington & Rutland Railway Company, also received a pass from the Adirondack Steamboat Company in 1897. The boat pictured on this card is the side-wheel steamer New York See below for some other steamboat passes and tickets from the Adirondack Steamboat Company/ (1897), Baltimore Steam Packet Company (1911), New Jersey Steamboat Company (1870), and Reading Steamboat Company .

"Baltimore Steam Packet Co. Bay Line, 1911. Pass Mr. John F. Auch, Frt Traf. Mgr-–Philadelphia & Reading Rwy, until December 31st unless otherwise ordered. John R. Sherwood, president & general manager. No. 1726. Not valid unless countersigned by W. W. Erdman or myself. Florida." According to Wikipedia, "The Baltimore Steam Packet Company , nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay , primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia." The steamer Florida , which is pictured on the pass, was a propeller-driven, steel-hulled vessel built by the Maryland Steel Company in 1907. For another illustration of the ship, see Steam Packets on the Chesapeake: A History of the Old Bay Line since 1840 (Centreville, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1961), by Alexander Crosby Brown, p. 82. John F. Auch was a freight traffic manager for the Philadelphia and Reading Railway , which later changed its name to the Reading Railroad and was immortalized as one of the railroads featured on the Monopoly game board. Compare this pass with an Adirondack Steamboat Company Pass, 1897 :

"H. J. Heinz Company, Main Plant and General Offices, Pittsburgh, U.S.A. Pure Food Products, Heinz 57 Varieties. The house in which we began, 1869." An advertising postcard, ca. 1900s-1910s, published by the H. J. Heinz Company , a food processing company known for its ketchup and more than 57 Varieties of other products.

"Adirondack Steamboat Co. Pass E. D. Bennett, G. Supt., Bennington & Rutland Railway, until December 31st, 1897, unless otherwise ordered. George Sweet, president. No. 1932. American Bank Note Co., N.Y."

"Railroad Hotel, corner River and Front Sts., opposite steam boat landing and R.R. depots, Cleveland, Ohio. Geo. Thompson, proprietor. Meals, twenty-five cents. Passengers and baggage conveyed to and from the house, free."

"Reading Steamboat Co., this ticket is good for one passage from Reading to High's Grove. Good for this day only. Reading Steamboat Co. Return ticket from High's Grove to Reading." The Reading Steamboat Company operated steamboats on the Schuylkill River in the city of Reading, Pennsylvania, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A front-page article in the Reading Eagle newspaper for Monday, August 3, 1903, for instance, included this brief report about company operations: "Steamboat Trips. The Reading Steamboat Co. made trips with its steamboat, 'The City of Reading,' on the Schuylkill [River] between Hain's and Kissinger's locks Sunday [August 2], and carried hundreds of passengers. The round trip was 1½ miles. The vessel will ply between the same points next Sunday."

See also the front of this pass (below). "I hereby accept this free ticket, and assume all risks of accidents, losses and injuries, both to person and property, on the route of this Company, while using it whether occasioned by negligence of its agents or otherwise." "This ticket is invalid unless signed by the individual named thereon, and, if presented by any other person, is to be taken up by the Clerk."

See also the back of this pass (below). "New Jersey Steamboat Company. 1870 Season. People's Line. Not transferable. New York, April 5, 1870. Pass [W. J. Pierrepout & J. Bredt?]. Rome, Watertown, and Ogdensburgh R.R. Subject to the conditions on the back hereof. No. Rgd. Jno. C. Hewitt, G.T.A." John C. Hewitt was a general ticket agent for People's Line Steamers.