Steamboat interior photos and illustrations

further question

Forgive me if this should be obvious.. but I googled images of steamboat interiors found a few illustrations.. several are high ceilinged salons.. are these in fact on the boats or are they terminals or such? Now i really need the floor plan!! 😀

Nan

Suggestions

Nan, I recommend The Mississippi Steamboat Era in Historic Photographs by Thomas and Joan Gandy. It is a large, soft cover book loaded with fabulous photos, including interior images of the Str. J.M. WHITE, built in 1878 and considered the last word in steamboat elegance. The book is available on Amazon, Ebay and elswhere. Very nominally priced and worth its weight in gold for the fascinating pictures it contains.

Also, a well illustrated booklet entitled Steamboat Art Decoration and Elegance was written by the late Miss Ruth Ferris, while curator of the River Room at the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis. It is long out of print, but the text (minus some of the images) was reprinted in a book, published in 1994 by the St. Louis Mercantile Library entitled St. Louis and the Mighty Mississippi - The Collected Writings of Ruth Ferris. The book contains a number of other fine articles on steamboat history that are very valuable to researchers. Miss Ferris was my mentor and patron saint of steamboat history!

Good luck with your project!

"Curator Keith"
Howard Steamboat Museum

Belle's last steam generator

Here's a short (and not very action-packed) video of the Belle's last steam generator on-line for an hour (not the length of the video) getting some exercise. This turbine is about as simple as it gets--single stage impulse turbine, but it can still do the job! It also gives the paddlewheel quite a steam cleaning! Belle turbine 9202011 - YouTube

Frances Parkinson Keyes' novel "Steamboat Gothic" has a vivid description of the cabin of Capt. J. Stut Neale's RICHMOND. Reading it would give a good idea of life as a cabin passenger on one of the crack boats of the halcyon days of Mississippi River steamboats.

When Miss Keyes was writing that novel she was advised by Capt. Fred Way, Jr. to get the details spot on.

Nan Hawthorne;27361 wrote: Forgive me if this should be obvious.. but I googled images of steamboat interiors found a few illustrations.. several are high ceilinged salons.. are these in fact on the boats or are they terminals or such? Now i really need the floor plan!! 😀

Nan

Nan, the J.M. White dining room on the American Queen is high ceilinged.

Paul

Thanks for all these suggestions.. I will see what i can do about getting those books. In my fictional steamboat, Le Beau Soleil will be elegant ahead of its time. And you KNOW this group is going to rank high in the acknowledgements! As I said, i am preparing a short story with a couple of the main characters now for a publication called Wilde oats. Having lots of fun, too!

Nan

OK, just bought the novel and also the first book suggested.. and have pput in a request for the king County Library Sustem to interlibrary loan the Gerris book. Wish me luck!

Eye candy, steamboat style

Gorgeous..more! more!

Steamboat Times - Interiors

Nan

The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County has also digitized many images of steamboats contained in their Inland Rivers Photograph Collection. You can search the images and I remember seeing several shots of the saloon and even one of the ladies' cabin. There is also a painting by Adrien Persac that depicts the interior of a larger steamer prior to the Civil War. The URL for the Inland Rivers Collection is Inland Riverboats Photograph Collection - Wiki of The Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

Robert gudmestad

Well i tried

The first book was not available.. rats.

Novel

I bought it.. it's the same age i am!

Ferris

My library surprised and delighted me by getting a copy of the Ferris reprint.. the booklet was falling apart, poor thing... so i scanned it so I can read it at my leisure. I use OCR as I need to have my computer or Kindle read aloud to me.

Nan