Ship Model, Steamboat Buckeye State
Ship Model, Steamboat Buckeye State
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- The Buckeye State 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 Buckeye State 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.”
- On May 1, 1850 the Buckeye State 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 Buckeye State still held the record for the fastest trip ever made by a steamboat between Cincinnati and Pittsburgh.
- In 1851, showman P. T. Barnum organized a race between the Buckeye State and the Messenger No. 2 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 Messenger No. 2, the Buckeye State won the race. The Buckeye State continued its service up and down the Ohio for six more years until it was retired and dismantled in 1857.
- Object Name
- model, river boat
- date made
- 1963
- construction completed on Buckeye State
- 1850-02
- Buckeye State retired
- 1857
- participated in a steamboat race
- 1857
- owned and operated by
- Pittsburgh & Cincinnati Packet Line
- supervised construction of Buckeye State
- Holmes, David
- captain of the Buckeye State
- Dean, Sam
- maker
- Boucher-Lewis Precision Models, Inc.
- built
- United States: New York, New York
- where the Buckeye State was built
- United States: Pennsylvania
- ship sailed on
- United States: Ohio River
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- metals (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 21 in x 66 in x 16 in; 53.34 cm x 167.64 cm x 40.64 cm
- ID Number
- TR.322425
- catalog number
- 322425
- accession number
- 247839
- Expansion and Reform
- Civil War and Reconstruction
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Maritime
- Industry & Manufacturing
- Advertising
- On the Water exhibit
- Transportation
- Exhibition
- On the Water
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
Nominate this object for photography.
Our collection database is a work in progress. We may update this record based on further research and review. Learn more about our approach to sharing our collection online.
If you would like to know how you can use content on this page, see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use. If you need to request an image for publication or other use, please visit Rights and Reproductions.
Pat LaFollette
Tue, 2020-06-09 09:18