Howard Steamboat Museum Celebrates the Golden Age of Steamboats
Return to the golden age of steamships with a visit to the Howard Steamboat Museum in Southern Indiana. Located in the former home of the ship-building Howard family, the Howard Steamboat Museum displays artifacts, photographs and paintings on the vessels that once plied the Ohio River and beyond.
The museum offers personal tours to patrons. On display are items from famous riverboats: the Natchez and the J.M. White, built by the Howard Ship Yards and one of the most luxurious and powerful steamships to sail on inland waters. (To provide an idea of the ship's importance, a model of the sidewheel steamboat J.M. White is on display at the National Museum of American History.)
Also on display are items from swift Robert E. Lee, which was built in 1866 in neighboring New Albany and made famous by Al Jolson in the song, "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee." Also on display is the shaft of the riverboat Delta Queen's original paddlewheel, parts of hulls from Howard ships, full- and half-breadth models of ships, and numerous ship-building tools. More than 4,000 photographs illustrate an era in which steamboats were the fastest form of transportation.
The 22-room, three-floor Romanesque Revival mansion, finished in 1894, was home to the Howard family. Over 107 years, beginning in 1834, three generations of the Howard family crafted more than 3,000 ships in what was the largest inland shipyard in its day, the Howard Ship Yards. (The shipyard is no longer owned by the Howards, but it continues building ships under the name Jeffboat.) The Howard mansion was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.
The house still boasts the chandeliers, carved moldings, velvet curtains, lovely antiques and impressive grand staircase of its heyday as the home of a ship-building magnate. That makes the site a perfect one for weddings, parties and other special occasions.
The Howard Steamboat Museum provides art classes for anyone of grade school age or older and legacy storytelling classes for senior citizens.
Visitors can buy books, audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs, boat plans, posters and more in the museum's gift shop.
HelloJeffersonville Tip: AAA and AARP members get a $1 discount per admission. Groups of 10 or more also get a $1 discount per admission.
Posted on Jun 15, 2011 by Ivonne Rovira
