1857
This Currier & Ives print titled “Wooding up on the Mississippi” depicts the steamboat Princess taking on firewood for its steam engines. Pleasant and reassuring, such scenes were produced for the American masses, creating romantic images of the Old South that linger to this day. Of course, the reality of everyday life along the banks of lower Mississippi was far from idyllic. By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were over 4,000 fatalities on the riverboats due to boiler explosions alone. In addition to such hazards, there was the pervading institution of slavery. All in all, it was an unpleasant and hellish society for many of those who lived it.1 With much still to discover about this period of the American past, ephemera can provide shreds of historical evidence, such as a menu from the Princess in 1857, a thought-provoking remnant of this legendary riverboat.
