You probably have all the old DQ brochures. I got this on eBay because I liked the quaint styling of the cover with graphics and text done in an old timey way including the "guarantee" at the bottom assuring passengers of top notch service and staff. I subdued the red lettering in Photoshop a bit, seemed a bit too bright to me. The effect caused the color to taper off pretty much to black and white at the bottom which is OK since it leads you eye to the courtesy guarantee. From the looks of the stateroom interiors this would have been early on in the DQ's career back East since the headboards on the beds look non descript and inexpensive and the old Professor of Cally-ope is featured in a photo also and I gathered he was an early member of the crew. |
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This is an original ad for one of Cap'n Leathers' series of boats all named NATCHEZ.
Jim Hale thought thinks this is probably the 6th boat by that name. There's no date
on this piece which was yellow with age. I cleaned it up in this hi con version.
The reduced scan produced a "moray pattern" in the sky which of course the original doesn't have. |
A flour sack label.  On the cover of the January 12, 1884 Frank Leslies' Illustrated Weekly. Not the greatest illustration of a pilot house. Kind of a skimpy pilot wheel. Lumpy human figures. Whoever did the original sketch may have been poorly served by the engraver, hard to tell.  Beautiful illustration by Marshall Frantz on the front cover of the Aug 26, 1939 Argosy magazine. Nice ferry boat in background for the "River Rogues (A Novel of the Mississippi)."  Detail of cover from August 1945 YANK magazine. (U.S. Army publication). Nostalgic scene taken near Owensboro, Kentucky. Nice pix of the Greenes in the article . . . (see next two pages).  Old Popular Mechanics magazine cover, March 1913, documents the opening of the lock and dam in 1913. |
Attached is Dean Cornwell's painting/illustration for Ben Lucian Burman's story LOW WATER ON THE MISSISSIPPI, published in TRUE magazine FEB 1953. This image covered pages 52 and 53 so I had to close the gap and touch out the seam where they joined together. This is inside the pilot house of the Tennessee Belle and the patina on everything is marvelous as well as the authentic wardrobe on Captain, pilot and steward. The cover of the same issue of TRUE featured on of Cornwell's paintings of the Betsy Ann. Both paintings are in the Ohio River Museum at Marietta. When I come across the cover I'll scan that also. |
Dean Cornwell's painting/illustration of Fred Way's BETSY ANN which appeared on the cover of TRUE magazine FEB 1953. Cornwell's painting/illustration for Ben Lucian Burman's story LOW WATER ON THE MISSISSIPPI covers pages 52 and 53 in the same issue of TRUE. Both of these paintings belong to the Sons & Daughters of Pioneer Rivermen and are on display in the Ohio River Museum at Marietta, Ohio.  This is a detail from a 1953 Kelly Tires ad by an artist named Wainwright (first name not legible). It's based on a photo of the Piasa taken on the St. Louis levee I sent a while ago. The painting is certainly idealized from the photo with everything cleaned up, smokestacks made higher, bridge made grander. Nice job of idealization and nostalgia.  Detail of a Hiram Walker Imperial Whiskey advert. Even more emphasis on idealized nostalgia here. |
I have it on good authority from Jim Hale that this scene shows Yazoo City, Mississippi not Vicksburg. La'rn somethin' new ever' day.  This is a colorized version of an old ad for Miller Tires. The original was a black and white pen and ink drawing.  This 1945 ad for Kaywoodie pipes uses a still from Steamboat Round the Bend, starring Will Rogers. Kaywoodie did the colorization.  This is the graphic portion of an 1890's color lithograph "No. 536" from Donaldson in Cincinnati. The red letters above and below (cropped out here) promoted the Stony Creek steamboat recreation pier at New Altona Beach. An "Ideal Picnic Resort." Apparently this was in New York state someplace where I'm sure the boats did not resemble our favorites but the graphic is pretty nice. The generic boat has no name though it resembles the CINCINATTI. The artist eliminated the swinging stage on the port side, probably to keep it from being cropped by the oval vignette. The image area is about 27 inches square.  You're probably familiar with this . . . Pilot house of the Great Republic from Oct 1874 Scribner's Monthly from a series of articles about "The Great South", this was called Down the Mississippi. I made a high rez scan and improved the distant boat visible on the left side and slimmed down the pilot who was about a third bigger in the engraving. I imagine the original drawing by J. Wells Champney that this was based on, was probably quite a bit better than the engraving but who knows what became of it? - Dave |
The Lynxville painting was done by Chicago artist Frederic Mizen (1888-1964). Mizen specialized in portraits and landscapes with an emphasis on the American Indian. Lynxville, Wisconsin was first known as Haney's Landing, when two brothers, John and James Haney, purchased land from the government. They started a trading post to deal in wood and furs with the Indians and built the first log cabin. In 1857 a group of men hired Pizarro Cook to survey the land and the village was laid out. Mr. Cook settled here in Crawford County and became the County Surveyor. He served in the army during the Civil War, taking part in a number of important events, such as the Siege of Atlanta and Sherman's march to the sea. Lynxville was incorporated in 1889 with a census population of 313. The name Lynxville was taken from the steamboat "Lynx" which brought surveyors to the village. Lynxville had the ideal harbor - the channel of the river made a bend into the land at the point called "The Devil's Elbow" and the water good depth enabling boats, large and small, to come in for supplies and to carry on trade. Lynxville became one of the stopping places for big boats traveling from St. Paul to St. Louis. |
This is from a 16 X 20 print of Hippolyte Sebron's painting of steamboats on the New Orleans levee in 1853. The original huge mural-like painting is in the Dean's office at Tulane University in New Orleans. I visited there and saw it with old graduate Ray Samuel who was the biggest dealer in steamboaty stuff I ever ran across. I only bought a few things from him and had to just pine away for the rest. All his best stuff was in his own collection at his home in the Garden District. Anyone seeking a print of the painting should go through the Tulane University Special Collections http://www.tulane.edu/~lmiller/SpecCollHomePage.html Special Collections Tulane Libraries, Jones Hall Tulane University New Orleans LA 70118 ph: 504-865-5685 fx: 504-865-5761 email Tulane.edu  This is another put together From a poster commemorating New Orleans and Louisiana by "G.?" Richards I pulled the AMERICA and straightened her up (she was crooked in the poster) extended her lower deck (a tree covered it); put her on John Stobart's water, got the smoke and pilot house from a painting by James L. Kendrick III and the sky from a painting from the 1600's by Jacob van Ruisdael. Whew! This is reduced 35% from the size I scanned and comp'd it. Still needs a little fine tuning in the rigging etc. Thought you might find it entertaining. Dave  Post card of the M & A Packet Co. with the first Kate Adams. Major John D. Adams was owner of the boat and head of the company. Nice old timey advertising.  Cover of the little box (5 X 6 inches) containing a sort of a jig saw puzzle of a side wheel Queen City. The puzzle pieces are actually just a bunch of trapezoidal shaped pieces so they don't interlock like a jig saw would. Assembled the whole thing measures 12 1/4 X 16 1/4. This could possibly represent the second sidewheel Queen City 1851 - 1859. There are no swinging stages in either of the graphics so possibly this predates the Civil War! Kind of hard to believe but the design and antiquity of the box and puzzle make it seem possible. The manufacturer Peter G. Thomson is no relation that I know of but he spelled his name "right." (Detail below.) |
A circular vignette from the cover of the "1889-1890" Christmas catalogue published by the Atlanta, Georgia manufacturer THE "DIXIE" COMPANY. Don't know what they made but a graphic of the factory in the cover is huge and has two big chimneys plus a lot of smaller ones spouting smoke.  An Elgin watch with steamboat graphic. Not certain of the vintage. Will have to get a jeweler to open it up and give me a run down on the serial number, date etc. |
The attached post card of the Chester is one of the weirder ones with the bevy of young ladies, were the "Marquis girls" vaudevillians or "fancy wimmen"? . . . they're too old to be school girls. And why the Mexican straw hats? Captain looks like Will Rogers. I like the geezer with the huge beard that looks like a disguise. In the margins is written: "Lexington, Missouri, August 21 -1907 Captain Burton (Steamer Chester) Miss Alice Spencer Miss Fannie Pirner (?) Bates and Marquis girls on trip down Mo. River - August 1- 1907." Dave Thomson Illustration Collection 1 | 2 | 3 
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