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Full Steam Ahead: Reflections on the Impact of the First Steamboat on the Ohio River, 1811–2011

Full Steam Ahead: Reflections on the Impact of the First Steamboat on the Ohio River, 1811–2011

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Full Steam Ahead: Reflections on the Impact of the First Steamboat on the Ohio River, 1811–2011; By Rita Kohn, editor; 2011; Softcover; 272pp; 11x8.5; ISBN: 9780871952936;  Item IHS037

Full Steam Ahead celebrates the epic voyage of the steamboat New Orleans, from Pittsburgh to New Orleans in 1811—the first steamboat capable of traveling upriver as well as down. This voyage ushered in commerce, hastened immigration, and engendered town building within the Ohio–Mississippi River basin, transforming the raw frontier to an economic and social powerhouse. Full Steam Ahead is a book of essays on the development of steamboats, Ohio River cities, and river transportation, written for the general reader by individuals who have been engaged in a variety of river occupations. It is part of a larger project to explore ways the voyage of the New Orleans impacted the United States economy, technology, and culture.

Table of Contents

  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Harbinger of Revolution
  • Structural Evolution of the Western Rivers Steamboat
  • A Synoptic History of Towboating and Its Origins
  • The Era of Town Building Below the Falls
    • “Whatever will benefit a part—will benefit the whole”
  • “Omen of Evil”
    • Steamboats and the Colonization of the Ohio River Valley
  • The Steamboat and Black Urban Life in the Ohio Valley
  • Steamboat Music
  • The Steamboat New Orleans and Its Impact on Navigation on Ohio River Tributaries
  • The Ohio River: A World-Class Inland Waterway
  • Afterword
    • The River Today and Tomorrow
  • Appendix 1
    • Belle of Lousville
    • Sole Survivor of the Pioneering New Orleans
  • Appendix 2
    • The Rivers Institute at Hanover College
    • A List of Materials on River People, Steamboats and the Ohio-Mississippi River System in the Agnes Brown Duggan Library
  • Index
"Full Steam Ahead" Book Review

About the author

Prolific author, playwright, and college instructor Rita Kohn served as coordinator of the award-winning book and exhibition Always a River: The Ohio River and the American Experience. Kohn conceived, cowrote, and coproduced the Emmy-winning documentary Long Journey Home: The Delaware Indians of Indiana.