Details
Creator Heiss, George G.
Contributor Wagner & M'Guigan, printer
Title Conflagration of the steam boat New Jersey on the Delaware River opposite Philada. [graphic] : March 15th 1856 in which 60 persons lost their lives Lithographed from a drawing made on the wharf above Vine St. by Geo. G. Heiss; printed by Wagner & McGuigan.
Publisher Philadelphia: Published by the artist at 213 N. 2nd St. above Vine, 3rd story
Date [1856]
Physical Description 1 print : lithograph, tinted with one stone mounted on paper; 37 x 56 cm.(14.25 x 22 in.)
Description Shows, in the distance, clouds of smoke rising from the Philadelphia and Camden Ferry Co. steamboat under the winter night sky as rowboats race to and from the wreck. In the foreground, two survivors sit and cling to cakes of ice near floating debris. In the right of the image, her sister ferry "Dido" travels to the rescue, the ship's reflection visible in the water. Captained by Ebenezer Corson, the "New Jersey," on mid-voyage to Camden from Philadelphia via an alternate elongated route due to heavy ice, caught fire as the result of defective boilers. With the fire spreading rapidly, Corson retreated to Arch Street Wharf in Philadelphia, and came within thirty feet of the pier when the pilot house collapsed leaving the boat unmanned and out of control. Corson survived by leaping ashore before the uncontrolled ship drifted back out on the river.
Is referenced by Wainwright 81
Notes Philadelphia on Stone
POS 154
Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bc 83 N 548
See reduced variant "Conflagration of the steam boat New Jersey on the Delaware River opposite Philada. March 15th 1856 in which 50 persons lost their lives" [LCP Wainwirght 82, P.2026]
Subject Steamboat accidents -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Disaster victims -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Fires -- Pensylvania -- Philadelphia.
Rescues -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia.
Geographic subject Delaware River (N.Y.-Del. and N.J.)
Genre Lithographs -- Tinted -- 1850-1860.
Location Historical Society of Pennsylvania | HSP Bc 83 N 548