onlinesteamboatmuseum

Steamboat Photos: Stereoviews

"Stereoviews (also known as stereographs or stereoscopic cards) are among the first form of 3D photography. The pictures are taken with a special stereoscopic camera, which has two lenses, simulating the views received by the left and right eye." - Stereoview - Early Photography*

This page contains remnants of this nineteenth century technology.


paddlewheel boat

Missouri River steamer Montana in 1864 from a stereo view.


StereoviewBackSideMINNEAPOLISatTheFalls33percent

StereoviewRightEyeMINNEAPOLISsidewheelerForNORI

Detail from the right eye of an original stereoview:
"Steam Boat MINNEAPOLIS at the falls"
JACOBY'S MINNESOTA & FOREIGN VIEWS
Published by W.H. JACOBY
2nd Street & Bridge Square
Minneapolis, MINNESOTA

MINNEAPOLIS
Sidewheel Packet, 1869-1884
Way's Packet Directory Number 3944

Hull and framing were done at Wheeling, West Virginia, completed at Pittsburgh in 1869
First owned in 1869 by Captain R.C. Greg.

Subsequent owners:

Keokuk Northern Line
Consolidated Northern and White Collar Line
1881: St. Louis and St. Paul Packet Company

On October 23, 1880, the La Crosse (Wisconsin) Morning Chronicle published that the MINNEAPOLIS sank in 6 feet of water, one mile above Denmark Chute, a short distance above Louisiana, Missouri. She was raised.


TAKE2RobtELeeLowAngleFromStereoSubtleSepiaForNORI

A low angle view of the ROB'T E. LEE also from a stereoview and also taken at the New Orleans levee. This is a rare photograph, pretty much a mirror image of the angle that Cornwell painted the LEE from for his painting of the race with the NATCHEZ.


StereoviewCabinCityOfNatchezFinessedREDUCEDforNORI

I own the original of this stereoview in my collection which I loaned to Ralph DuPae and he had it copied for the La Crosse Steamboat Collection University of Wisconsin.

Such deluxe Victorian splendor and opulence!

Stereoview "Drawing Room, Steamer City of Natchez, Mississippi River."

Photographed and Published by Kilburn Brothers of Littleton, New Hampshire

CITY OF NATCHEZ
Sidewheeel Packet

Way's Packet Directory Number 1109
Built at Jeffersonville, Indiana by Howard in 1885, at the cost of $75,000 for the Anchor Line
Master was Captain Horace E. Bixby (who "learned" the art of piloting to Sam Clemens)
H.E. Corbyn was clerk

Burned at Cairo, Illinois on December 28, 1886


StereoRightEyeDUBUQUE_landing_ForNORI

This is the right eye of a stereoview of the DUBUQUE at a landing.

The fourth and last steamboat to be named DUBUQUE was originally named PITTSBURGH when it was constructed in Cincinnati in 1879.

The boat was purchased by Joseph "Diamond Jo" Reynolds in 1881 and operated as part of his steamship line until a storm destroyed much of her upper deck. The PITTSBURGH was towed to Eagle Point where the Diamond Jo Boat Yards repairs were made under the direction of Captain John F. KILLEEN.

Renamed the DUBUQUE, the boat returned to operation until purchased by the Streckfus line and converted to an excursion boat named CAPITOL, which in her final years of operation, ran as far north as Stillwater, Minnesota, and then moved south near New Orleans during the winter.


StereoNo215NATCHEZpubS.T.Blessing87CanalStNewOrleansREDUCEDforNORI

From my stereoview collection . . .

"Left eye" from Stereoview

No. 215 Str. NATCHEZ Loading (not dated)

Published by:
S.T. Blessing
87 Canal Street
New Orleans, Louisiana.

This is the steamer that raced the ROB'T. E. LEE in 1870


StereoviewNewOrleansSteamboatsPERFEC_REDUCEDforNORI

The Steamboat Landing, New Orleans, LA

The "PERFEC" STEREOGRAPH (Trade Mark.)

Patented April 14, 1903 H.C. WHITE Co. Publishers


RedWing1870ImprovedForNORI

From a stereoview of the Red Wing 1870. Those huge smokestacks and outsized flags are amazing, must've taken 3 men and a boy to raise banners like that. Low bridges already must have made stacks this high impractical.


SidewheelerRedWing1870NoLinePacketLaCrosseCollectionForNORI


Take2_StereoviewDEWEYLeftEye_NewOrleansForNORI

Stereoview of the DEWEY at New Orleans with rousters in the foreground unloading coal.

DEWEY
Sidewheel Packet Boat
Way's Packet Directory Number 1527
Built in as the second KATE ADAMS in 1888. Chalmette Packet Co. of New Orleans bought her in Sept 1898 and changed her name to DEWEY. She ran out of New Orleans to Grand Lake and the Bends, also to Vicksburg and Lake Providence. In 1901 she ran with JULIA between Memphis and New Orleans. Memphis & Vicksburg Packet Co sold her in July 1902 to Captain Thomas B. Sims of St. Louis who renamed her LOTUSSIMS.


StereoviewNewOrleansUnderwoodNEW_Oct2017_85percent

Stereoview of 4 steamboats at New Orleans

Stereoview by Underwood amp; Underwood "S 174" No. 11212 "Busy ship-crowded wharves on the Mississippi, New Orleans, U.S.A."

I always think of these vessels as "boats," not "ships" but suppose it depends on your "preference."


StereoViewLeftEyeStrCITYofNewORLEANS1891ForNORI

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS 1891

Steamboat CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
"Levee Scene New Orleans" 1891
Stereoview - Left Eye

Photographer & Publisher J.F. Jarvis
Washington D.C.

Sold by Underwood & Underwood

Library of Congress Digital Collection


MinneapolisCABIN

Scanned from my vintage stereo view of the back end of the cabin of the MINNEAPOLIS. A lady is playing the piano for the passengers. She is facing a mirror that reflects the cabin. Steamboat authority and collector Bert Fenn of Tell City, Indiana loved this photo and I gave him a print of it.

MINNEAPOLIS (Sidewheel Packet, 1869-1884)
Way's Packet Directory Number 3944

Hull and framing were done at Wheeling, West Virginia, completed at Pittsburgh in 1869
First owned in 1869 by Captain R.C. Greg
Subsequent owners:
Keokuk Northern Line
Consolidated Northern and White Collar Line
1881: St. Louis and St. Paul Packet Company

On October 23, 1880, the La Crosse (Wisconsin) Morning Chronicle published that the MINNEAPOLIS sank in 6 feet of water, one mile above Denmark Chute, a short distance above Louisiana, Missouri. She was raised.

From May 17th to the 21st 1882 Mark Twain traveled from his hometown Hannibal, Missouri to St. Paul aboard the MINNEAPOLIS

The MINNEAPOLIS was sunk by ice at St. Louis, Missouri in 1884

One of Mark Twain's notations in his Notebook during the voyage:

"8 years ago boats like the MINNEAPOLIS used to go into St. Paul with 150 people. Man used to say 'Got 28 cars of wheat, Captain.'
'I'll take 2 of 'em.'
Now the Captain inquires
'What you got for us?'
'Nuth'n.'
The RR has done it."

- Mark Twain's Notebooks & Journals, Vol. II, 1877-1883


CommonwealthStereoView

From a stereoview of the Pilot House and Texas aboard the Commonwealth steamboat. A stereoview offered two photos that looked like a three dimensional image.

StereoCabinCommonwealthRightEye

stereoview of the COMMONWEALTH's cabin

COMMONWEALTH
Sidewheel Packet

Way's Packet Directory Number 1275
Built at Shousetown, Pennsylvania, 1864

Ran New Orleans-St. Louis 1866, with James Lloyd, master, and James K. Boyles, clerk.
In 1868 Benjamin F. Hutchinson of St. Louis had a three-quarters interest in her, and M. W. Beltzhoover of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania had a one quarter interest; Captain William Conley was master.
In May 1873 she was sold to Captain J. P. Sedam and others who extensively rebuilt her, then could not pay the bills.
A U.S. marshal libeled her at St. Louis in November, 1873. Captain Thomas W. Shields and others bought her and ran her New Orleans-St. Louis and also made Cincinnati-New Orleans trips.
It is said she once went up the Wabash River to New Harmony, Indiana and brought out a large cargo of corn. She was incorporated into the Anchor Line circa 1876.
In her old age she was sold to a gentleman of Dover, Kentucky, who ran several Cincinnati-New Orleans trips with her, then pinch-hit in the excursion trade between Cincinnati and Coney Island.
One night she ran over the Lame Duck and sank it. Frank L. Sibley recalled that she had a mockingbird whistle and had to lower her stacks to clear the Cincinnati suspension bridge even on ordinary stages.
She burned at the foot of Whittaker Street, Cincinnati at 11:00 p.m., August 25, 1889.


StereoViewLeftEyeCabinGreatRepublicSEPIA

Stereoview The Cabin of the GREAT REPUBLIC

Classic "steamboat Gothic" interior, Main Cabin GREAT REPUBLIC

Stereoview, Left Eye

Number 730. SALOON.
STEAMER GREAT REPUBLIC
MISSISSIPPI RIVER

S.T. Blessing
87 Canal Street
New Orleans, Louisiana


Rob't_E_Lee_Racer_LeftEyeStereoviewREDUCEDforNORI

This is the "Left Eye" in a stereoview from my collection.





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With the exception of images credited to public institutions,
everything on this page is from a private collection.
Please contact Steamboats.com for permission for commercial use.*

All captions provided by Dave Thomson, Steamboats.com primary contributor and historian.

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