FLOOD ACTIVITIES in 1889....looks like the photog had a real slow shutter speed, as demonstrated by those BENT steamboat stacks! (and the blurred couple on the tracks to the left.) Lawrence Baggerly Collection.
Hmm. Looks a lot like over here in Central Europe right now. We have been having plenty of flooding from heavy summer rains. Thanks for the picture. It has been too quiet here recently.
Nice photo, Roger. The steamboat looks too large for anywhere other than the Ohio or Mississippi Rivers, where is this? Regards slow shutter, it's possible the photographer was exposing the image by removing the lens cap. I don't know when the mechanical shutter was developed, or put into wide use, but it may have been around or even after 1889.
It may have been taken down by Cairo by the size of the steamboat. I think that was the same year the Big 4 dumped a steam engine over the side of their bridge over the Wabash at Terre Haute Ind, trying to save one of the piers. It worked and when the river gets real low you can still see it, with permission of course. inch
These old photos are interesting- There is always one brave soul who must find a dangerous perch. Note that fellow standing out on a log? Boxcab E50