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About the UW La Crosse Historic Steamboat Photographs
The UW-La Crosse Historic Steamboat Photograph collection consists of
over 40,000 black and white photographic images of steamboats on the
inland waterways of the United States, primarily the Mississippi, Ohio
and Missouri rivers and their tributaries. The photos depict steamboats
in every phase of their life span - from construction to destruction - and every aspect of their daily operations from the 1850s to the
present. The photos show steamboats in all sort of settings - on the
water; going through a lock, at a city's waterfront or levee, tied up at
shore - as they went about their everyday business of hauling freight
and passengers and towing barges and rafts. For some steamboats,
especially the bigger excursion boats, there may be over a hundred
photographs to view; for other boats, there might be only a single photo
to document its existence. Besides steamboats, other types of images in
the collection include steamboat captains, engineers, pilots, passengers
and crews; city and town waterfronts; levees; locks and dams; and
river-related activities such as fishing, swimming and clamming. Click here
for a list of subjects used in the steamboat project.
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