Receipt book of steamboat Columbian for wood and coal purchased on several voyages between Pittsburgh and the following cities: Cincinnati, Nashville, St. Louis, Louisville, and Wabash. Also includes a passenger list for a trip from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati and a list of officers of the steamboat Potomac. The receipt book was later used as a scrapbook, and newspaper clippings have been affixed over many of the pages. The book was kept by John Reno of Rochester, Pennsylvania. (132 pages) (1 item) (accession number 60-0029) (shelved with bound volumes), 1848-1851
Scope and Contents
The Steamboats and River History Collection is an artificial, or subject-based, collection comprising a variety of documents that have been placed in this collection over the years due to their common subject matter. The bulk of the collection relates to river travel and commerce primarily in the vicinity of St. Louis and on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. The collection includes more than 60 receipts and bills of lading, mostly dated pre-1900, for merchandise shipped on the rivers; letters, reminiscences, and journals, many of which contain accounts of nineteenth-century steamboat travel; brochures, booklets and other printed advertising material for tourist excursion boats, including the popular twentieth-century St. Louis steamboats Admiral, President, and Delta Queen; several twentieth-century newspaper clippings reflecting on the steamboat era in the West; menus; tickets; and licenses for steamboat officers. Of particular note is a letter and petition of Robert R. Livingston and Robert Fulton to the governor of Upper Louisiana, dated 1810, requesting a monopoly to operate steamboats on the Upper Mississippi River.
Dates
- 1848-1851
Conditions Governing Access
The collection is open for research use.
Extent
From the Collection: 2.2 Cubic Feet ( (3 boxes; 3 volumes; 4 oversize folders))
Language of Materials
English
Repository Details
Part of the Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center Repository