View of several fishermen, including African American men, most waist deep in the river and all but one in a semi-circle, gathering up their catch into a rowboat. A Philadelphia pier lined with residences, the mills of Gloucester, New Jersey, and sailboats on the river are visible in the foreground and background., Title from item., Date from manuscript note written on recto: April-May 1855., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 691, Accessioned 1982., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021., Queen was a premier Philadelphia genre, nature, and advertisement lithographer who with fellow lithographer P.S. Duval, was an early successful chromolithographer.
Creator
Queen, James Fuller, 1820 or 1821-1886, artist
Date
[1855]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W335 [P.2189]
Dramatic view of the steamboat engulfed in flames and smoke, the captain still at the helm as the passengers escape into the icy river. Panicked-looking passengers jump into the water already teeming with disaster victims, including an African American man, who thrash, swim, and attempt to stay upon and assist others onto cakes of ice, debris, and a single rowboat. Rescuers from the nearby wharf, including firemen, work in a frantic manner and desperately throw a rope to a white woman standing on an ice floe. Also shows a horse on the fire engulfed deck and a white woman propelled by a flame off of the rear of the boat. A sign for "Baths" is visible on the riverbank in the background. Contains the names of the 107 white and "colored" dead, missing, and saved passengers in three columns below the image. 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 a result of defective boilers, a fireplace, and brick work. 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., Title from item., Date supplied by Wainwright., Copyrighted by A. Pharazin., Philadelphia on Stone, Purchase 1965., Description revised 2021., Access points revised 2021.
Date
[1856]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department *W478 [7541.F]
