Day line steamer on the Hudson

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A side-wheel day liner plies the Hudson River, one of the passenger steamers that carried vacationers and day-trippers up and down the waterway from New York City in the early twentieth century. Its paddle wheels and tall stacks show the design that made these vessels familiar on the river. The picture is a glass dry plate negative from the Detroit Publishing Company, a firm known for its large-format views of American scenery and travel. The record dates it to about 1905, based on the company's 1906 catalog, so it captures the height of the Hudson steamboat era, before automobiles and railroads drew away much of the river traffic.

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