Ship Model, <I>Steamboat Buckeye State</I>
date: label: date made
content: 1963
label: construction completed on Buckeye State
content: 1850-02
label: Buckeye State retired
content: 1857
label: participated in a steamboat race
content: 1857
name: label: owned and operated by
content: Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line
label: supervised construction of Buckeye State
content: Holmes, David
label: captain of the Buckeye State
content: Dean, Sam
label: maker
content: Boucher-Lewis Precision Models, Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: The <I>Buckeye State</I> was built at Shousetown, Pa., south of Pittsburgh. In 1849 the hull was completed and hauled up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh to be finished. Under the supervision of David Holmes, the <I>Buckeye State</I> was completed in February 1850. It was owned and operated by the Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line, which ran it regularly on the Ohio River between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh. The company owned six or seven steamers at a time, and ran daily departures between the two cities. By the mid-1840s the Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line was praised by a Pittsburgh newspaper editor as “the greatest convenience . . . ever afforded the citizens on the banks of the Upper Ohio.”
label: Description
content: On May 1, 1850 the <I>Buckeye State</I> left Cincinnati for Pittsburgh and completed the trip in a record 43 hours. Under Capt. Sam Dean, the steamer made 24 stops along the route, needing coal once and wood three times. One hundred years later, the <I>Buckeye State</I> still held the record for the fastest trip ever made by a steamboat between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
label: Description
content: In 1851, showman P. T. Barnum organized a race between the <I>Buckeye State</I> and the <I>Messenger No. 2</I> as a publicity stunt to advertise Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind’s American tour. Steamboat racing was growing in popularity, and so a race was the perfect promotion. Although Lind and Barnum were aboard the <I>Messenger No. 2</I>, the <I>Buckeye State</I> won the race. The <I>Buckeye State</I> continued its service up and down the Ohio for six more years until it was retired and dismantled in 1857.
place: label: built
content: United States: New York, New York
label: where the Buckeye State was built
content: United States: Pennsylvania
label: ship sailed on
content: United States: Ohio River
topic: label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
label: related event
content: Civil War and Reconstruction
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
label: See more items in
content: Advertising
label: See more items in
content: Industry & Manufacturing
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
label: See more items in
content: On the Water exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.322425
label: catalog number
content: 322425
label: accession number
content: 247839
objectType: label: Object Name
content: model, river boat
label: Other Terms
content: model, river boat; Maritime
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metals (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21 in x 66 in x 16 in; 53.34 cm x 167.64 cm x 40.64 cm