[Waterfront, Detroit, Michigan]

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The image shows a working waterfront in Detroit, with cargo ships tied up along the river, a scene that reflects the city's position on the Detroit River between Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie. Detroit's docks handled the bulk freight of the Great Lakes, including iron ore, coal, and grain, and the heavy traffic made the riverfront a center of commerce by the turn of the twentieth century. The picture is a large glass dry plate negative, one of the Detroit Publishing Company's views made between 1890 and 1910, when the firm documented American cities and landscapes for sale as prints and postcards. The negative's large format gives the view a sharp level of detail in the ships and the waterfront.

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