Alan Mays' photos with the keyword: steamships

"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.

"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 :

Caption: "S. S. Grand View Point. A Steamer in the Allegany Mts. Elv. 2624 ft. 17 m. W. of Bedford, Pa. U.S. 30. 4-CEG-32." Signs and banners: "Grand View Point Hotel. Post Cards. Souvenirs. See 3 States and 7 Counties. Visitors Welcome. Free Telescope." "Restaurant. Rooms." "S.S. Grand View Point....Open for Business." This image of the famous Ship Hotel , which was a popular roadside attraction along the Lincoln Highway (U.S. Route 30) in western Pennsylvania until it burned to the ground in 2001, is a real photo postcard by Charles Elmer Gerkins (indicated by the initials "CEG" in the caption) that's dated April 1932 ("4-32"). In The Ship Hotel: A Grand View along the Lincoln Highway (Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole Books, 2010), author Brian Butko quotes a 1930s WPA guide to explain the reason that the building was shaped like a ship: "The S.S. Grand View Point Hotel was remodeled in 1931 to give the impression of an ocean liner, because the owner saw a resemblance between early morning mists rising from the valley and billowing ocean waves." After enlarging the image, I discovered that two of the banners on the building (including the one hanging on the railing just above "3 States") indicate that the "S.S. Grand View Point" is "Open for Business." Since the building was remodeled to look like a ship sometime in 1931 (the smokestacks, deck, and bow-shaped front of the building were added at that time), I wonder if this photo from April 1932 shows the building just after it reopened. See also two linen postcards that illustrate the 63-Mile View from the hotel and the Approach to the Hotel :

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of grandma and/or grandpa with the grandchildren / sitting on grandpa or grandma's lap . A real photo postcard showing a baby and two men--looks like the kid's father and grandfather--posing on a studio mockup of the City of Toledo , which was a steamship that plied the waters of Lake Erie between Toledo and Put-in-Bay, Ohio, beginning in the 1890s.

"Grand View Point Hotel. See 3 states and 7 counties. Pa., Md., W. Va, 63 mile view from Grand View--Ship Hotel on Lincoln Highway, U.S. 30, 17 miles west of Bedford, Pa., looking into 3 states and 7 counties, 80 miles east of Pittsburgh, Pa. 4A-H1905." Printed on back: "Distributed by H. Paulson, Grand View-Ship Hotel, Central City, Pa."

"Grand View Point Hotel. Approaching S.S. Grand View Point Hotel on the Lincoln Highway, 17 miles west of Bedford, Pa. Elevation 2,464 feet. 3A-H421." Printed on back: "Grand View Point Hotel at the most beautiful spot in U.S. Summit of Allegheny Mts., 17 miles west of Bedford, Pa., on Historic Lincoln Highway, overlooking 3 states and 7 counties. Elevation 2,464 feet. Distributed by H. Paulson, Grand View-Ship Hotel, Central City, Pa."

A flappers photo for the Vintage Photos Theme Park. The John Cadwalader (note the partially visible name at the upper right-hand corner in the image above) was a steamship built by Pusey and Jones in 1926 and operated by the Baltimore and Philadelphia Steamship Company. This photo shows flappers --three of whom are wearing cloche hats --posing with a cigarette-smoking fellow on the deck of the steamship sometime in the late 1920s or possibly the early 1930s.