Snapshots of the Past

Str. Empire, 1844, first steamer in U.S. exceeding 1000 tons, 260 x 36 x 15 ft. – Vintage Print

Str. Empire, 1844, first steamer in U.S. exceeding 1000 tons, 260 x 36 x 15 ft., [between 1910 and 1920] — historic photograph
Str. Empire, 1844, first steamer in U.S. exceeding 1000 tons, 260 x 36 x 15 ft., [between 1910 and 1920]. Historic photograph from the Steamboats collection.

(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)

Description

A window into the past: Str. Empire, 1844, first steamer in U.S. exceeding 1000 tons, 260 x 36 x 15 ft., preserved in this historic photograph. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.

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Str. Empire, 1844, first steamer in U.S. exceeding 1000 tons, 260 x 36 x 15 ft.

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The Str. Empire, completed in 1844, was billed as the first steamer in the United States to exceed 1,000 tons, and at 260 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 15 feet deep, it was a striking vessel for its day. This picture is a glass negative made between 1910 and 1920 by the Detroit Publishing Company, which copied an earlier print of the ship rather than photographing the vessel itself. That makes it a record of how the Empire was pictured for later audiences, when American steamboats had become a familiar symbol of the nation's rivers and waterways.

Created / published[between 1910 and 1920]
Medium1 negative : glass ; 8 x 10 in.
GenreDry plate negatives.Prints Reproductions.
NotesPhotograph of a print. Detroit Publishing Co. no. 022708. Gift; State Historical Society of Colorado; 1949.
SourceLibrary of Congress, Detroit Publishing Company Collection
Original scan973 × 782 px
ReferenceAMZ-SOTP-DET-65575

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