J.M.White Steamboat 1st steamboat

*The three J.M. WHITES/China, flatware?*
Dear Horace Speck & steamboating colleagues:
Read your inquiry above but admit to being a tad confused on my end. Your posting reads 'J.M WHITE Steamboat 1st steamboat.' No doubt you are aware there were three vessels so named J.M. WHITE: the WHITE of 1842 operating till 1843, rather brief operating career; then the J.M. WHITE of 1844 until roughly 1850. Capt. Fred Way's PACKET DIRECTORY Pgs. 233 - 235 give fine 'bios' on all of the WHITE vessels. The 2nd WHITE, according to Way, had a daguerreotype take of her by a St. Louis draughtsman in/around 1850. The last WHITE was the pivotal, stupendous vessel from the celebrated Howard Yards, 1878 being their 276th boat at the peak of their career.

Any "monograpmmed china, and flatware" I assume you refer to the 1st J.M. WHITE? Keith Norrington at the Howard Museum, and others on this web, may know of surviving pieces in addition to cabin furniture--but no doubt from the last WHITE. I know a few families with such material in fine silver and wood furniture from the last WHITE with documented provenance. Then again, these are personal pieces and getting access to them either for viewing or photographing would be most difficult. As they say, 'possession is 9/10ths of the law' in most cases. No doubt others with more expertise will chime in on this in time. Well, what do I know?

R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati.

The River Museum in Dubuque has one of the chairs from the J.M.W.III's cabin on display along with a chair that is believed to have been in the boat's office. The aforementioned items were from a renowned New Orleans collector, Ray Samuels. After his death there was an auction where the above and a lovely Gorham sugar bowl and creamer from the vessel were sold. Each of the items bringing in thousands of dollars.

Fittingly, The Howard Museum has a few pieces of the WHITE's monogramed flatware on display. As far as any remaining china, I certainly hope that there is still some that remains, but I know of none.

JMW Artifacts at the HSM

Indeed, at the Howard Steamboat Museum we have a cruet set with the boat's name on it. Sorry to say, a large spoon from the boat does not have any visible monogram. A descendant of the Tobin family told me that two of his elderly aunts, now long deceased, ran an antique shop in the French Quarter for many years. They decided that nobody would be interested in buying flatware with J.M. WHITE on it and so had it removed from all the pieces in order to sell them. Despite the name being gone, the late Bert Fenn purchased the flatware and it was acquired by the museum when his fabulous collection of steamboat memorabilia was sold at auction in Ohio during the summer of 1994.

Many years ago, when the New Orleans Maritime Museum was housed in the Trade Mart at the foot of Canal Street, they had a number of fine pieces from the JMW, including a beautiful table and chairs. I saw these in the spring of 1972. The museum later closed and I have no idea where those pieces are at this time.

JMW chair

When I visited Bert Fenn around 1980, he showed me his JMW chair. It was a beauty. I could've kicked myself for not having my camera with me.

Lee Anne