Model of Towboat <I>Valley Belle</I>
date: label: Date made
content: 1970
notes: label: Description
content: The sternwheel steamer <I>Valley Belle</I> was built as a packet boat at Harmar, Ohio, in 1883. It measured 127.4’ long by 22.9’ in beam and a shallow 3.4’ in draft. As a packet delivering people, cargo and the mails, the <I>Belle</I> worked for decades along several rivers from the Ohio to the Kanawha in West Virginia. In 1891, the <I>Belle</I> transported 8,320 tons of cargo and 6,241 passengers along the Ohio River.
label: Description
content: In 1917, the <I>Valley Belle</I> was operating along the Ohio River between Marietta and Middleport, Ohio. In March 1919 it was purchased by Billy Bryant of the famous showboating family. Bryant had just built a fancy new showboat and needed a larger towboat than they owned to tow it.
label: Description
content: The <I>Belle</I> towed <I>Bryant’s New Showboat</I> for several years down the Kanawha, Ohio, Monongahela, Illinois, and Mississippi Rivers before being replaced by a smaller boat. Competition from movie theaters had shortened the range of the showboats, which were forced to go to ever-smaller and more remote towns for willing audiences. The <I>Belle</I> continued to tow on various rivers until 1943, when it sank in the Ohio River at Kanauga, Oh. Its career as a wooden-hulled river steamer in nearly continuous use for 60 years is unmatched.
topic: label: related event
content: The Development of the Industrial United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
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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.330213
label: catalog number
content: 330213
label: accession number
content: 288672
objectType: label: Object Name
content: boat, river
label: Object Name
content: model, river boat
label: Other Terms
content: boat, river; Maritime
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in x 29 in x 6 in; 25.4 cm x 73.66 cm x 15.24 cm