2 pamphlets on steam for a power source for maritime transportation. One is by FITCH, John. The Original Steam-Boat Supported; or, a Reply to Mr. James Rumsey’s Pamphlet. Shewing the True Priority of John Fitch and the False Datings, &c. of James Rumsey. Philadelphia: Zachariah Poulson, Jr., 1788. 8vo, no covers, iii, pp. 1042 – 1162. (disbound)

[With:] RUMSEY, James. A Short Treatise on the application of Steam, Whereby is Clearly Shewn from Actual Experiments That Steam May be Applied to Propel Boats or Vessels of any Burthen against Rapid Currents with Great Velocity. Philadelphia: Joseph James, 1788. Later reprint including later developments in steam vessels (including Robert Fulton’s Clermont, 1807) pp. (1013) – 1038.

At the beginning of the latter work, Rumsey notes in an introductory “advertisement:” “The following pages are taken from a pamphlet published in Virginia, to prove the author’s prior right of applying steam, to propel boats &c. as well as to establish the principles on which he has done it, …but as Mr. Fitch intends to answer the pamphlet, it is therefore necessary to republish as much of it as respects Mr. Fitch, which is done with no other variation from the original than to correct a few of the omissions and mistakes that were introduced into the first publication, from the hurry in which it was done….must I then be deprived of my discoveries which are substantial, because I endeavoured to keep them secret until perfected? Justice will never suffer it….”

Masters and Pilots Scale for Year 1924. Light card stock, (approx.. 5.5 x 6.5 in.) Gives rates for Masters and Pilots, both waiting and running. For various types of boats – coal towing boats, job boats & sand boats, trip boats, packet boats, excursion boats. “All Complaints of any Member Working for Less than Scale Shall be Reported to Harbor in Writing.”

Blank Steam-boat shipping order, with side wheeler graphic at top. Available for sale at W.H. Hurd, Bookseller, Stationer, Printer and Binder, Zanesville, Ohio.

Bill of Lading, for 1 Victor Sewing Machine, for Jno. O. Day, on the Steamboat Willie Austen to be delivered to Patron Supply House, Marietta, Ohio, 23 July 1879. Graphic of a side-wheeler at top. Available from W.H. Hurd.

Eleven more bills of lading for steamers: Boone (2), Reville, Guyandotte, Andes, Georgia, Sallie Freese, Emma Graham, New Era (2), and Telegraph. 1878 to ca 1890. The bill for Reville has a large graphic of a side-wheel packet boat. Most of this river traffic was between Gallipolis, the Kanawha River, Wheeling, Pittsburgh, Portsmouth, Huntington, Proctorville, and Cincinnati (overall roughly Cincinnati to Pittsburgh).

Marine Album. Nine light cardstock pages and covers, string-tied spine. Color lithographs of vessels on right page; left page with sketch of the vessel and parts identified (i.e., Mainmast. Maintop-mast. Cross trees. Main-boom. Fore-sail. Bowsprit. Etc.) Vessels: Sloop Yacht; Ocean Steamer; Bark; Long Island Sound Steamer; Schooner; Yacht; Brig; Mississippi River Steamboat; Three Masted Schooner. Last two pages are ads for Piso’s Cure for Consumption, and Catarrh remedy from E.T. Hazeltine, Warren, PA.

Railroad schedule: New York to Charleston with stops at Philadelphia, Baltimore, Norfolk, Petersburg, Weldon and Wilmington. September 1847. Large graphic of an early train at top. 9 x 9.25 in. (sight) Framed and glazed. (water stain at top; overall darkening)

Charter of the Rutland and Washington Rail-Road Company. An Act to Incorporate the Rutland and Washington Rail-road Company, General Assembly of the State of Vermont. 1848. 8vo, printed wraps, 8pp. (Pamphlet has hand-stitched repairs along the spine. Scattered dark spots. Fraying of page edges.)