This summer marks the 400th Anniversary of Samuel Champlain discovering invading the body of water known by the Abenaki as Biawbagok - the waters in between, and by the Iroquois as Caniadari Guarunti, the door to the country. The hoopla over the quadricentennial of Lake Champlain now begins.
Ephemera fans can rejoice not in Native American images but in a bounty of European-American images produced over the last hundred or so years. Here are but a few I've collected:
Postcard. Steamboat Vermont. copyright 1909. PSAW ephemera collections
Postcard back.
"This is a picture of the first Steamboat on Lake Champlain. (and the second in the World) It was built and launched at Burlington Vermont, in 1808, just 200 years after Champlain had entered its waters in a birch bark canoe.
The owners and builders were two brothers, John and James Winans; it was called the "Vermont;" and it was 120 feet long, 20 feet beam, 167 tons measurement; with an engine of 20 horse power, and commanded by Capt. John Winans"
Postcard. Steamer Ticonderoga. Ephemera Collections PSAW.
The Ticonderoga is now at the Shelburne Museum, Shelburne VT.
"Built in Shelburne in 1906, it operated as a day boat on Lake Champlain serving ports along the New York and Vermont shores until 1953. In 1955, the Ticonderoga was moved two miles overland from the lake to Shelburne Museum in a remarkable engineering effort that stands as one of the great feats of maritime preservation."
Rock Point, Lake Champlain. Postcard. PSAW ephemera collections
Lake Champlain from Red Rocks. Postcard PSAW ephemera collections.
Red Rocks is about a mile from Pine Street Art Works.
Wells, Richardson & Co, Diamond Dyes Trade card. PSAW ephemera collections
Wells, Richardson & Co was a huge business in Burlington during the late 1800's up to the 1930's. I've always imagined that this image takes place at Red Rocks. See the Lake in the background?
