Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Steamboats [Ships, Boats, and Vessels]
name: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
place: label: Place
content: New York (N.Y.) -- Transportation
label: Place
content: Hudson River
topic: label: Topic
content: Passenger ships
label: Topic
content: Marine machinery
label: Topic
content: Ships
label: Topic
content: Shipbuilding industry
label: Topic
content: Ferries
label: Topic
content: Transportation -- Japan
label: Topic
content: River boats
label: Topic
content: Marine engines
label: Topic
content: Boats
label: Topic
content: Transportation -- Far Eastern
label: Topic
content: Ships -- Equipment and supplies
label: Topic
content: Merchant Marine -- Manning of vessels -- United States
label: Topic
content: Docks
label: Topic
content: Health
label: Topic
content: Ocean liners
label: Topic
content: Merchant Marine -- United States
label: Topic
content: Ships -- Far Eastern
label: Topic
content: Rivers
label: Topic
content: Transportation -- river boat
label: Topic
content: World War, 1939-1945 -- Merchant Marine
label: Topic
content: Harbors
label: Topic
content: Trade associations
label: Topic
content: Transportation -- 1900-1910
label: Topic
content: Boats and boating
label: Topic
content: Water transport -- 18th century
label: Topic
content: Boats -- Southeast Asia
label: Topic
content: Cargo
label: Topic
content: Local transit -- New York (N.Y.)
label: Topic
content: Sailboats
label: Topic
content: Waterways
label: Topic
content: Sailing
label: Topic
content: Transportation -- New York (N.Y.)
label: Topic
content: Local transit
label: Topic
content: Scientific expeditions
label: Topic
content: Water transfer
label: Topic
content: Transportation -- History
label: Topic
content: Wharves
label: Topic
content: Steamboats
label: Topic
content: Boats -- New York (N.Y.)
label: Topic
content: Transportation
label: Topic
content: Public health
label: Topic
content: Marine engineers
label: Topic
content: Ocean travel
label: Topic
content: Seamen -- 1910-1920
label: Topic
content: Musical performances
label: Topic
content: Transportation -- Law and legislation -- United States
label: Topic
content: Merchant seamen
label: Topic
content: Marine engineering
label: Topic
content: Models and modelmaking
label: Topic
content: Navigation
label: Topic
content: Seamen -- 1940-1950
label: Topic
content: Travel
label: Topic
content: Importers
label: Topic
content: Shipping
label: Topic
content: Cruise ships
label: Topic
content: Ships -- New York (N.Y.)
label: Topic
content: Flags
label: Topic
content: Exports -- 19th century
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Steamboats [Ships, Boats, and Vessels] is a portion of the Business Ephemera Series of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Accession AC0060 purchased from Isadore Warshaw in 1967. Warshaw continued to accumulate similar material until his death, which was donated in 1971 by his widow, Augusta. For a period after acquisition, related materials from other sources (of mixed provenance) were added to the collection so there may be content produced or published after Warshaw's death in 1969. This practice has since ceased.
creator: label: Creator
content: Warshaw, Isadore, 1900-1969
setName: label: See more items in
content: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana Subject Categories: Steamboats [Ships, Boats, and Vessels]
abstract: label: Summary
content: A New York bookseller, Warshaw assembled this collection over nearly fifty years. The Warshaw Collection of Business Americana: Accounting and Bookkeeping forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Subseries 1.1: Subject Categories. The Subject Categories subseries is divided into 470 subject categories based on those created by Mr. Warshaw. These subject categories include topical subjects, types or forms of material, people, organizations, historical events, and other categories. An overview to the entire Warshaw collection is available here: Warshaw Collection of Business Americana
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 10.22 Cubic feet (consisting of 20 boxes, 2 folders, 9 oversize folders, 3 map case folders, 3 flat boxes (2 full, 1 partial.))
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1777-1965
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0060.S01.01.Steamboats
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Menus
label: Type
content: Bills
label: Type
content: Ships' passenger lists
label: Type
content: Patents
label: Type
content: Legislative documents
label: Type
content: Photographs
label: Type
content: Advertisements
label: Type
content: Advertising mail
label: Type
content: Advertising
label: Type
content: Illustrations
label: Type
content: Contracts
label: Type
content: Trademarks
label: Type
content: Inspections
label: Type
content: Programs
label: Type
content: Advertising cards
label: Type
content: Advertising fliers
label: Type
content: Print advertising
label: Type
content: Legal documents
label: Type
content: Travelogs
label: Type
content: Souvenir programs
label: Type
content: Business cards
label: Type
content: Concert programs
label: Type
content: Publications
label: Type
content: Commercial correspondence
label: Type
content: Correspondence
label: Type
content: Receipts
label: Type
content: Theater programs
label: Type
content: Business records
label: Type
content: Legal records
label: Type
content: Business ephemera
label: Type
content: Invoices
label: Type
content: Bills of sale
label: Type
content: Ships' logs
label: Type
content: Technical reports
label: Type
content: Reports
label: Type
content: Letterheads
label: Type
content: Ephemera
label: Type
content: Design patents
label: Type
content: Travel brochures
label: Type
content: Legislation (legal concepts)
label: Type
content: Business letters
label: Type
content: Timetables
label: Type
content: Travel diaries
label: Type
content: Printed ephemera
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: Ships, Boats, and Vessels is arranged in three subseries.

Business Records and Marketing Material

General Maritime Businesses




Operation Records of Named Vessels



Shipping Lines/Conglomerates

Miscellaneous Business Records and Marketing Material

Genre

Keepsakes

Images

Ledger

Legal

News Clippings

Regulatory

Reports

Serial Publications

Stamps/Cigarette Cards

Associations and Societies

Images, Artwork, Racing, Technical Literature

Subject

Battleships, Warships

Destination Guides

Employment and Licensing

Insurance

Maritime History

Maritime Models and Art

Revue Generale Des Sciences

Warshaw Administrative Records
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: In November 2016, the name of this category was modified from "Steamboats" to "Steamboats [Ships, Boats, and Vessels] to reflect the scope of the content and the integration of two, now obsolete, categories: Sailboats and Ships/Shipping, although a few items leisure type items were moved to Yachts.

In 2016, with funding provided by the Smithsonian Institution's Collections Care and Preservation Fund, the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History implemented the use of minimal level processing standards to increase information about and facilitate access to more of our collections.

For this subject, minimal processing included arrangement to the folder level, based on prior processing and preservation action, with retention of the pre-existing arrangement when possible, if applicable. Otherwise, an order was imposed by the Processing Archivist. Some materials were consolidated to eliminate excess bulk but items within folders were not arranged further. The guide may or may not include a more refined list of folder contents. Nonarchival housing was replaced for long-term stability, but staples and other fasteners have not
all been removed.

Minimal level processing and machine-readable finding aid completed by Nicole Blechynden, 2017 February.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Menus -- Ships -- 1940-1950
label: Genre/Form
content: Menus
label: Genre/Form
content: Bills
label: Genre/Form
content: Ships' passenger lists
label: Genre/Form
content: Patents
label: Genre/Form
content: Legislative documents
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographs
label: Genre/Form
content: Advertisements
label: Genre/Form
content: Advertising mail
label: Genre/Form
content: Advertising
label: Genre/Form
content: Illustrations
label: Genre/Form
content: Contracts
label: Genre/Form
content: Trademarks
label: Genre/Form
content: Inspections
label: Genre/Form
content: Programs
label: Genre/Form
content: Advertising cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Advertising fliers
label: Genre/Form
content: Print advertising
label: Genre/Form
content: Legal documents
label: Genre/Form
content: Travelogs
label: Genre/Form
content: Souvenir programs
label: Genre/Form
content: Business cards
label: Genre/Form
content: Concert programs
label: Genre/Form
content: Publications
label: Genre/Form
content: Commercial correspondence
label: Genre/Form
content: Correspondence
label: Genre/Form
content: Receipts
label: Genre/Form
content: Theater programs
label: Genre/Form
content: Publications -- Business
label: Genre/Form
content: Business records
label: Genre/Form
content: Legal records
label: Genre/Form
content: Business ephemera
label: Genre/Form
content: Invoices
label: Genre/Form
content: Bills of sale
label: Genre/Form
content: Ships' logs
label: Genre/Form
content: Technical reports
label: Genre/Form
content: Reports
label: Genre/Form
content: Letterheads
label: Genre/Form
content: Ephemera
label: Genre/Form
content: Design patents
label: Genre/Form
content: Travel brochures
label: Genre/Form
content: Legislation (legal concepts)
label: Genre/Form
content: Business letters
label: Genre/Form
content: Timetables
label: Genre/Form
content: Travel diaries
label: Genre/Form
content: Printed ephemera
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Minimally covers the terminus of the wind-powered (sail) era and more fully documents the peak of the engine (steam) era of commercial cargo and passenger vesselsk, including freight and dockage services, maintenance and provisioning, ferry service, navigation (tug and tow) assistance, plus leisure cruising and touring. There is not a significant amount of material on battle or war ships. Includes both short distance routes such as lakes, rivers, and islets, and longer trans-oceanic crossings.

Documents within the collection consist of handbills, broadsides, leaflets, books, business cards, advertisements, insurance forms, wreck reports, passenger lists, baggage tags, freight manifests, rate cards, correspondence on letterhead stationery, booklets, newspaper clippings, postcards, menus, periodicals, manuals, photographs, engravings, woodcuts, sketches, bills of lading, receipts, catalogues, ledgers, journals, purchase orders, broadsides, brochures, custom forms, schedules, shipping and receiving documents, early steam guides, timetables, lithographs, announcements, etc. There are no navigational nautical maps. There is very little in the way of international import/export records. However, domestic and North American freight services are well-covered through invoices, bills of lading, manifests, and receipts for goods and services.

Some materials cover the history and development of steamships, particularly in the latter half of the nineteenth century with the iron screw replacing the wooden paddle steamer in the 1850s. The late 1860s brought the compound engine, which led to the steamship, previously used for the conveyance of mails and passengers, to compete with the sailing vessel in the carriage of cargo for long voyages. The 1870s brought improvements in accommodation for the passenger, with the midship saloon, conveniences in state-rooms, and covered access to smoke rooms and ladies cabins.

Ownership of specific lines and vessels was very fluid throughout shipping history, including the renaming of vessels.  Mergers, dissolution, and absorption of fleets were frequent. Thus, researchers should independently seek out a more detailed history for any entity of particular interest.  

The general maritime business series focuses on good and services related to maritime operations such as repair, shipbuilding, parts, ticket agents, chandlers, groceries, coal supply, dockage, wharfs/marinas, etc.

Operation records of named vessels contains primarily bills of lading and similar receipts for the movement of material goods or in-water services such as tow and tug assistance.

The largest series covering shipping lines and conglomerates offers a wide assortment of miscellaneous, nonexhaustive operation records for cargo and passenger lines and corporations, typically those with multiple holdings. These documents may include receipts, bills of lading, correspondence, and financial ledgers, plus promotional material for services and routes offered. Passenger sailings and luxury cruise documentation may contain menus, passenger lists, itineraries, shore excursion information, souveniers such as luggage tags, ticket stubs, and postcards.  See also the subject category Menus, for additional examples of passenger and cruise ship menus.

When not associated with any of the above, general examples of materials related to the industry have been by arranged by their material type such as images, reports, and serial publications. More formal documentation, especially legal and reports, can be found here. 

Narrative type materials related to lore, history, and building and design specifications have been sorted by subject.  A scarce amount of material covers ships used for military service. Likewise, there are a few examples of maritime related material from the art world, mostly in the form of catalogues for exhibits or auction of paintings and scale models.

A note on vessel names: those used as contract carriers of mail and when in service, were entitled to unique prefix designations such as Royal Mail Ship (RMS.), otherwise, the ship name may be preceded by the more generic S.S. for single-screw steamer or steamship, SV for sailing vessel, PS for paddle steamer, RV for research vessel or similar type prefix.  USS is the standard for the United States Navy commissioned ships while in commission, with HMS used for His/Her Majesty's Ship of the British Royal Navy.

Some of the major lines/companies represented in the collection include: American Line, American Steamship Company, Anchor Line, Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, Cunard-Anchor Line, Cunard Line, Cunard Steam Ship Company, Limited, Cunard White Star Line, Eastern Steamship Lines, Furness, Withy & Company, Hamburg American Line (HAPAG) / Hamburg Amerika Linie, Holland America Line (N.A.S.M. / HAL), Inman Line, International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM), International Navigation Company, North German Lloyd (Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen), Panama Pacific Line, Peninsular and Oriental, Red Star Line, Royal Mail Steam Packet, U.S. Mail Steamship Company, United States Lines, White Star Line.
relatedmaterial: label: Related Materials
content: Several other Warshaw Subject Categories may have closely related material such as Submarines and Transportation. For casual and recreational boating see Boats and Boating Equipment and Yachts. Other subject categories that may have related materials include: Canals, Dredging, Engines, Menus, Railroads (point of common transportation transfer), and Tours. .
label: Forms Part Of
content: Forms part of the Warshaw Collection of Business Americana.

Series 1: Business Ephemera

Series 2: Other Collection Divisions

Series 3: Isadore Warshaw Personal Papers

Series 4: Photographic Reference Material