Description: Dated to the 1930s or 1940s, this photograph shows a Greene Line Steamboat and a towboat on the Ohio River. A note on the reverse of the photograph reads "[?] a towboat on Ohio River Greene Line Steamers." Greene Line Steamers was established in 1890 by Captain Gordon C. Greene and his wife, Captain Mary Greene. Based in Cincinnati, their steamships traveled primarily on the Ohio River, transporting freight between the east and west. In the 1920's, as railroads took over most freight transport, Greene Line Steamers survived by building larger and more modern steamships, limiting their transport to shorter trade routes, and by pioneering the business of passenger pleasure cruises. The company is perhaps most notable for purchasing the 'Delta Queen' in 1946, the last original and operational sternwheeler steamboat, a U.S. National Historic Landmark. After Tom Greene, son of Gordon C. Greene, died unexpectedly in 1950, Greene Line Steamers came under hard financial times and eventually folded in 1958. This photograph is one of the many visual materials collected for use in the Ohio Guide. In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration by executive order to create jobs for the large numbers of unemployed laborers, as well as artists, musicians, actors, and writers. The Federal Arts Program, a sector of the Works Progress Administration, included the Federal Writers’ Project, one of the primary goals of which was to complete the America Guide series, a series of guidebooks for each state which included state history, art, architecture, music, literature, and points of interest to the major cities and tours throughout the state. Work on the Ohio Guide began in 1935 with the publication of several pamphlets and brochures. The Reorganization Act of 1939 consolidated the Works Progress Administration and other agencies into the Federal Works Administration, and the Federal Writers’ Project became the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio. The final product was published in 1940 and went through several editions. The Ohio Guide Collection consists of 4,769 photographs collected for use in Ohio Guide and other publications of the Federal Writers’ Project in Ohio from 1935-1939. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B12F02_024_001
Subjects: Ohio River; Barges; Steamboats; Natural resources; Transportation--Ohio
Places: Ohio