Loading

Steamboat on the Street, Cleveland, Ohio, 1913

A Vintage Photos Theme Park photo for the theme of curbside.

This is a real photo exaggeration postcard showing a steamboat with smoke billowing from its smokestack as it navigates through the surging floodwaters on a city street. The water has stranded some pedestrians at the curb, where they were evidently waiting to cross the street.

Although the location isn't identified, one clue is the business name stamped in the lower right-hand corner: "The Dodd Rogers Co., Kodaks and Cameras."

According to the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History, the Dodd-Rogers Co. operated in Cleveland under that name between 1906 and 1914.Just before the business changed its name, the Great Flood of 1913 inundated Cleveland and affected the rest of Ohio as well as other states (see The 1913 Flood: "Ohio’s Greatest Weather Event", an article by Sarah White on the Cleveland Historical site).

Other exaggeration postcards appeared after the flood. One was captioned The Big Flood in Cleveland, and a second one also used the the same title.

Although I haven't matched this photo with a specific street and it doesn't bear a date, I believe that it was created in 1913 as a humorous reaction to the flood in Cleveland.

This is an divided-back real photo postcard with an Azo stamp box (four corner triangles pointing up) on the other side, which suggests a time frame—1907 to 1918—that covers the year of the flood. The card is unused with no message, address, or postmark on the other side.
Visible by: Everyone
(more information)

More information

Visible by: Everyone

All rights reserved

Report this photo as inappropriate

1 comment

Deborah Lundbech said:

Wow, so great, Alan!
It reminds me of our long gone from Ipernity friend, Angelica’s fabulous collages!
5 days ago