John Swatsley (American, B. 1937) "Steamboat New Orleans (1812)" Signed lower right. Oil on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This artwork originally appeared on the Fleetwood First Day Cover for the U.S. 25c Steamboat New Orleans stamp issued March 3, 1989. The New Orleans ushered in the age of the steamboat in the West, when the Ohio and Mississippi areas were still considered the West. Steamboats had already been used for some time to move freight and passengers on the slow-moving Hudson River, but conditions on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers were very different. Nicholas J. Roosevelt, great-granduncle of Theodore Roosevelt, approached Robert Livingston and Robert Fulton about building steamboats for use on the Mississippi. Livingston and Fulton had a monopoly on steamboat operation in New York and were interested in establishing the same control on western rivers. Nicholas Roosevelt would be their western representative. Roosevelt built a flatboat, and he and his young bride, Lydia, honeymooned down the river to New Orleans. Along the way, Roosevelt discussed steamboating with the rivermen, none of whom gave him encouragement. They believed the swift currents and shifting bottoms of the western rivers would make it impossible to use steamboats there. Less than two years later, Roosevelt was back with a steamboat, the New Orleans, to run the river. Lydia accompanied her husband on this trip also, and the couple's first child was born on this, the maiden voyage of a steamboat on the Mississippi River. The trip was adventurous and filled with near disaster, but after some three and a half months, the boat reached its destination successfully. The New Orleans went into regular service and was the beginning of a mighty steamboat company. Image Size: 14 x 12 in. Overall Size: 20.5 x 18 in. Unframed. (B11901)