The Jacob Strader at Wharf, Cincinnati
Attributed to
Ezekiel Hawkins
(American, 1808 - 1862)
Dateca. 1853
MediumDaguerreotype
DimensionsPlate (half): 4 1/4 × 5 1/2 inches (10.8 × 13.97 cm)
Case (open): 9 1/2 × 6 × 3/8 inches (24.13 × 15.24 × 0.95 cm)
Case (closed): 4 3/4 × 6 × 7/8 inches (12.07 × 15.24 × 2.22 cm)
Case (open): 9 1/2 × 6 × 3/8 inches (24.13 × 15.24 × 0.95 cm)
Case (closed): 4 3/4 × 6 × 7/8 inches (12.07 × 15.24 × 2.22 cm)
Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.
Object number2005.27.38
Signednone
Inscribednone
MarkingsOn plate verso, on mat backer, on paper tape, in pencil: "2-PLY 100% RAG BACKING BOARD INSTALLED, REGLAZED W/FILMOPLAST P-90 TAPE 9-21-2005 GSW"
On View
Not on viewCollections
DescriptionImage of boat marked "Jacob Strader" docked at wharf. Houses are along the shoreline and up the hill leading to a treed landscape. This half plate cased daguerreotype is housed in a brass mat inside of a case with an embossed red velvet liner in a case with a grape urn motif.Gallery LabelNamed for the head of the Strader Steamboat Company, the Jacob Strader was built in 1853 to carry mail and passengers between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Louisville, Kentucky. It served this function until the start of the Civil War in 1861, when it was often used to transport sick and wounded soldiers. The steamboat measured 347 feet long, making it the largest boat on the Ohio River at the time.
This plate, made around the time the boat went into service, celebrates industry and the ship owner’s prosperity. It is attributed to Ezekiel Hawkins, who operated one of the first daguerreotype studios in the Ohio River Valley.
Peter E. Palmquist and Thomas R. Kailbourn, Pioneer Photographers from the Mississippi to the Continental Divide, A Biographical Dictionary, 1839-1865 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2005): 313; Samuel Stanton, American Steam Vessels (New York: Smith & Stanton, 1895): 124-25; Austin Earle, Photographic Art-Journal 2:5 (November 1851): 317; "Boat-Building on the Ohio," Western Art Journal 1:1 (January 1855): 14-15.
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