Ohio-Mississippi River Keelboat

Description

Bodmer sketched various types of vessels on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers during his voyage to New Orleans in January, 1833. His detailed small study of a keelboat on the Ohio depicts one of the more common craft used at that time for transporting river cargo. Keelboats, flatboats, sailboats, and canoes were in use on the Ohio, Mississippi, and Missouri rivers throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. Steamer traffic was introduced early in the century on the Ohio and Mississippi, but it was not until 1832 that a steamboat ascended the Missouri River above present-day Council Bluffs, Iowa, north of the mouth of the Platte.