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Circa 1901. "Excursion steamers Tashmoo and Idlewild at wharves." At least our third look at these day-trippers tied up at the Detroit River wharf, in a sort of Shorpy version of "Groundhog Day." 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.
For a quick read on what all the hustle and bustle is about check it out here.
Another Tashmoo picture, bursting with vitality.
I would say that 1901 is a little too early for this image.
The ship heading upbound in the background appears to be the Columbia that was built in 1902 and made day-trips to Bob-lo Island Amusement Park in the middle of the Detroit River.
[The negative bears a copyright date of 1901 and was exposed in 1900 or 1901. The ship in the background is the City of Cleveland, launched 1886. - Dave]
That ship looks seriously overcrowded. Granted this was two years before the Titanic, but even so, as far as I can see there are just four(!) lifeboats for all those people. And if the Titanic has not yet gone down at least they should remember the General Slocum from just six years previously.
Color me nervous.
On the upside, lots of really sharply dressed people in an age when people actually cared about their appearance when in public.
Correction: I misread the date and thought it was 1910. Hence the odd references to events that have not yet occurred. A/O
translates as Floating Sardine Can.
This delightful photo illustrates three trends which have passed into history.
The "Idlewild" has a clearly visible "walking beam" just aft of her stack. This is part of an old-fashioned (usually) single-cylinder steam side-wheel engine.
See the lines of horse-drawn coal wagons waiting on the wharf to the right of the "Idlewild." A lot of human and equine labor will be expended to get that coal into the ship's bunkers. Compare that with pumping fuel into a modern ship, which requires little human effort.
Everybody has a hat! Some of them look pretty expensive.
1901 would seem to be toward the end of the golden age of bicycling, but certainly there are many in view. They are fairly modern-looking; I cannot spot any of the early Penny Farthing type with the huge front wheel.
All-in-all, yet another delightful Shorpy discovery, one that reminds me of riding the oil-fired Hudson River Day Line side-wheeler "Alexander Hamilton" in my boyhood.
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