Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Guide to the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Steamboats [Ships, Boats, and Vessels] Revised

Summary

Collection ID:
NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Steamboats
Creators:
Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
Dates:
1777-1965
Languages:
Collection is in
English
. There are a few items in
Italian
,
German
,
Finnish
,
French
, and
Spanish
, where noted.
Physical Description:
10.22 Cubic feet
consisting of 20 boxes, 2 folders, 9 oversize folders, 3 map case folders, 3 flat boxes (2 full, 1 partial.)
Repository:
A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana

Scope and Contents

Scope and Contents
Minimally covers the terminus of the wind-powered (sail) era and more fully documents the peak of the engine (steam) era of commercial cargo and passenger vesselsk, including freight and dockage services, maintenance and provisioning, ferry service, navigation (tug and tow) assistance, plus leisure cruising and touring. There is not a significant amount of material on battle or war ships. Includes both short distance routes such as lakes, rivers, and islets, and longer trans-oceanic crossings.
Documents within the collection consist of handbills, broadsides, leaflets, books, business cards, advertisements, insurance forms, wreck reports, passenger lists, baggage tags, freight manifests, rate cards, correspondence on letterhead stationery, booklets, newspaper clippings, postcards, menus, periodicals, manuals, photographs, engravings, woodcuts, sketches, bills of lading, receipts, catalogues, ledgers, journals, purchase orders, broadsides, brochures, custom forms, schedules, shipping and receiving documents, early steam guides, timetables, lithographs, announcements, etc. There are no navigational nautical maps. There is very little in the way of international import/export records. However, domestic and North American freight services are well-covered through invoices, bills of lading, manifests, and receipts for goods and services.
Some materials cover the history and development of steamships, particularly in the latter half of the nineteenth century with the iron screw replacing the wooden paddle steamer in the 1850s. The late 1860s brought the compound engine, which led to the steamship, previously used for the conveyance of mails and passengers, to compete with the sailing vessel in the carriage of cargo for long voyages. The 1870s brought improvements in accommodation for the passenger, with the midship saloon, conveniences in state-rooms, and covered access to smoke rooms and ladies cabins.
Ownership of specific lines and vessels was very fluid throughout shipping history, including the renaming of vessels. Mergers, dissolution, and absorption of fleets were frequent. Thus, researchers should independently seek out a more detailed history for any entity of particular interest.
The general maritime business series focuses on good and services related to maritime operations such as repair, shipbuilding, parts, ticket agents, chandlers, groceries, coal supply, dockage, wharfs/marinas, etc.
Operation records of named vessels contains primarily bills of lading and similar receipts for the movement of material goods or in-water services such as tow and tug assistance.
The largest series covering shipping lines and conglomerates offers a wide assortment of miscellaneous, nonexhaustive operation records for cargo and passenger lines and corporations, typically those with multiple holdings. These documents may include receipts, bills of lading, correspondence, and financial ledgers, plus promotional material for services and routes offered. Passenger sailings and luxury cruise documentation may contain menus, passenger lists, itineraries, shore excursion information, souveniers such as luggage tags, ticket stubs, and postcards. See also the subject category Menus, for additional examples of passenger and cruise ship menus.
When not associated with any of the above, general examples of materials related to the industry have been by arranged by their material type such as images, reports, and serial publications. More formal documentation, especially legal and reports, can be found here.
Narrative type materials related to lore, history, and building and design specifications have been sorted by subject. A scarce amount of material covers ships used for military service. Likewise, there are a few examples of maritime related material from the art world, mostly in the form of catalogues for exhibits or auction of paintings and scale models.
A note on vessel names: those used as contract carriers of mail and when in service, were entitled to unique prefix designations such as Royal Mail Ship (RMS.), otherwise, the ship name may be preceded by the more generic S.S. for single-screw steamer or steamship, SV for sailing vessel, PS for paddle steamer, RV for research vessel or similar type prefix. USS is the standard for the United States Navy commissioned ships while in commission, with HMS used for His/Her Majesty's Ship of the British Royal Navy.
Some of the major lines/companies represented in the collection include: American Line, American Steamship Company, Anchor Line, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, Cunard-Anchor Line, Cunard Line, Cunard Steam Ship Company, Limited, Cunard White Star Line, Eastern Steamship Lines, Furness, Withy & Company, Hamburg American Line (HAPAG) / Hamburg Amerika Linie, Holland America Line (N.A.S.M. / HAL), Inman Line, International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM), International Navigation Company, North German Lloyd (Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen), Panama Pacific Line, Peninsular and Oriental, Red Star Line, Royal Mail Steam Packet, U.S. Mail Steamship Company, United States Lines, White Star Line.

Arrangement

Arrangement
Ships, Boats, and Vessels is arranged in three subseries.
  • Business Records and Marketing Material
  • General Maritime Businesses
  • Operation Records of Named Vessels
  • Shipping Lines/Conglomerates
  • Miscellaneous Business Records and Marketing Material
  • Genre
  • Keepsakes
  • Images
  • Ledger
  • Legal
  • News Clippings
  • Regulatory
  • Reports
  • Serial Publications
  • Stamps/Cigarette Cards
  • Associations and Societies
  • Images, Artwork, Racing, Technical Literature
  • Subject
  • Battleships, Warships
  • Destination Guides
  • Employment and Licensing
  • Insurance
  • Maritime History
  • Maritime Models and Art
  • Revue Generale Des Sciences
  • Warshaw Administrative Records

Administration

Author
Nicole Blechynden
Sponsor
Funding for partial processing of the collection was supported by a grant from the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund (CCPF).
Processing Information
In November 2016, the name of this category was modified from "Steamboats" to "Steamboats [Ships, Boats, and Vessels] to reflect the scope of the content and the integration of two, now obsolete, categories: Sailboats and Ships/Shipping, although a few items leisure type items were moved to Yachts.
In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections.
For this subject, minimal processing included arrangement to the folder level, based on prior processing and preservation action, with retention of the pre-existing arrangement when possible, if applicable. Otherwise, an order was imposed by the Processing Archivist. Some materials were consolidated to eliminate excess bulk but items within folders were not arranged further. The guide may or may not include a more refined list of folder contents. Nonarchival housing was replaced for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not all been removed.
Minimal level processing and machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, 2017 February.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Steamboats [Ships, Boats, and Vessels] is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.

Using the Collection

Preferred Citation
Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Ships, Boats, and Vessels, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution
Conditions Governing Use
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is open for research. Some items may be restricted due to fragile condition.

Related Materials
Several other Warshaw Subject Categories may have closely related material such as Submarines and Transportation. For casual and recreational boating see Boats and Boating Equipment and Yachts. Other subject categories that may have related materials include: Canals, Dredging, Engines, Menus, Railroads (point of common transportation transfer), and Tours. .

Forms Part Of


Keywords

Keywords table of terms and types.
Keyword Terms Keyword Types
Menus -- Ships -- 1940-1950 Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Menus Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Passenger ships Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Marine machinery Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ships Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Shipbuilding industry Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ferries Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation -- Japan Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
River boats Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bills Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Marine engines Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Boats Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ships' passenger lists Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation -- Far Eastern Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ships -- Equipment and supplies Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Merchant Marine -- Manning of vessels -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Docks Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Health Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ocean liners Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Merchant Marine -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ships -- Far Eastern Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Rivers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Patents Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Legislative documents Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation -- river boat Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
World War, 1939-1945 -- Merchant Marine Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Harbors Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Trade associations Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Photographs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation -- 1900-1910 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Boats and boating Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Water transport -- 18th century Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Boats -- Southeast Asia Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cargo Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Local transit -- New York (N.Y.) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sailboats Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Waterways Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Sailing Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation -- New York (N.Y.) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
New York (N.Y.) -- Transportation Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Local transit Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Scientific expeditions Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Water transfer Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation -- History Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Wharves Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Steamboats Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Boats -- New York (N.Y.) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Advertisements Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Advertising mail Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Public health Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Advertising Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Illustrations Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Marine engineers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ocean travel Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Contracts Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Trademarks Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Inspections Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Seamen -- 1910-1920 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Programs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Advertising cards Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Advertising fliers Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Print advertising Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Legal documents Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Travelogs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Musical performances Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Transportation -- Law and legislation -- United States Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Souvenir programs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Merchant seamen Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business cards Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Marine engineering Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Concert programs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Publications Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Models and modelmaking Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Navigation Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Hudson River Geographic Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Commercial correspondence Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Correspondence Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Receipts Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Theater programs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Publications -- Business Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business records Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Legal records Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Seamen -- 1940-1950 Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Travel Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Invoices Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Bills of sale Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ships' logs Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Technical reports Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Reports Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Letterheads Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Importers Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Design patents Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Shipping Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Travel brochures Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Cruise ships Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Legislation (legal concepts) Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Ships -- New York (N.Y.) Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Flags Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Exports -- 19th century Topical Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Business letters Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Timetables Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Travel diaries Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid
Printed ephemera Genre Form Search Smithsonian Collections Search ArchiveGrid

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