[STEAMSHIP MANUSCRIPT MANIFEST, LARGE ENGRAVED ADVERTISING BROADSIDE, AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS RELATING TO EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA THROUGH THE RICHARDSON BROTHERS IN THE EARLY 1850s]

Liverpool & Philadelphia, 1852. Five items, detailed below. Overall very good. A small but important collection of documents recording the immigration of Western Europeans to Philadelphia, California, Canada, and other North American locales aboard the ship CITY OF GLASGOW in 1852. Starting in the 1820s, Philadelphia became a leading port of entry for sailing vessels carrying predominately Irish and English immigrants from Liverpool. In the 1840s, Philadelphia was eclipsed by the port of New York, only to regain prominence with the introduction of steam navigation, and the formation of the Liverpool and Philadelphia Steam Ship Company (LPSSC) in 1849. Between 1847 and 1854, over 120,000 immigrants arrived through the port of Philadelphia, making the city the fourth-busiest port in the country during those years. Established by William Inman in partnership with the Richardson Brothers (devoted Quakers), and headquartered in Liverpool, the LPSSC established a Philadelphia branch with Thomas Richardson as its agent in 1850. The company acquired its first ship, the CITY OF GLASGOW in October of that year. The company's first passage from Liverpool to Philadelphia left on December 17, 1850, carrying 400 passengers, and arrived in Philadelphia just ten days later. Refitted in 1852, the CITY OF GLASGOW was also the first steamship to carry steerage passengers, transporting thousands of European emigres to the Eastern seaboard of the United States over the next two years. Sadly, in March 1854, the CITY OF GLASGOW simply disappeared on its way from Liverpool to Philadelphia with 430 passengers, and its fate and whereabouts remain a mystery today. The present collection includes the following: 1) REPORT OR MANIFEST OF ALL THE PASSENGERS TAKEN ON BOARD THE City of Glasgow S.S.V. WHEREOF William Wylie IS MASTER, FROM Liverpool...[beginning of text]. Philadelphia: Maurice, Stationers, August 9, 1852. [15]pp., docketed on verso. Oblong folio. A couple of short closed marginal tears, else very good. A partially-printed manifest, completed in manuscript, listing 311 passengers on the newly-refitted CITY OF GLASGOW single-screw steamship. About 100 passengers are listed with cabin seats, while over 200 are assigned to steerage; interestingly this was the first year passengers were allowed in steerage for overseas travel. Each entry records the passenger's name, occupation, native country, and country of destination. The male passengers are mostly tradesmen, though there are also merchants, engineers, distillers, brewers, shopkeepers, a music teacher, vocalists, farmers, lawyers, and more. Most of the female passengers' occupations are recorded as "none" (as are a great deal of the men) though one woman is listed as a "shoe binder." The country of origin for most of the passengers is either England, Scotland, or Ireland (this is just a few years after the mass exodus caused by the Great Potato Famine), but a healthy number of passengers hail from Germany. Almost all of the passengers hope to settle in the United States, but a handful are heading for Canada, and one passenger to Peru. Three farmers from Ireland are headed to California specifically, and other cities identified by name include Baltimore, Pittsburgh, New York, and Toronto. Ages of the passenger range from six months to seventy-two years. A vital record of European emigres to North America during a brisk era of immigration. 2) STEAM COMMUNICATION MONTHLY FROM LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK, BALTIMORE, PITTSBURG [sic], CINCINNATI, CHARLESTON, HAVANA, &c., BY WAY OF PHILADELPHIA. Liverpool: T. Brakell, Printer, [n.d., but 1851]. Illustrated broadside, 17 1/2 x 11 1/4 inches. Old folds, minor creasing. Very good. A striking and apparently unrecorded broadside marking both the revitalization of the port of Philadelphia as a destination for immigrants to the United States, and steam navigation as the means by which they traveled. The Richardson Brothers' first steamship the CITY OF GLASGOW - the first steamship to demonstrate that Atlantic steamers could operate profitably without government subsidies and the first steamship to travel from Glasgow to New York - is listed prominently here, along with steamships named after the cities of Manchester, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. The broadside is packed with information, including travel schedules for the company's four ships running between Liverpool and Philadelphia from August to November 1851; rates of passage, enumerated at 22 guineas from Liverpool for cabin and steerage at 13 guineas (both prices constituting months- worth of wages for the common laborer); rates of freight at "60s. per ton", with free forwarding services for goods traveling to "the interior of the United States," and railway and boat ticket prices from Philadelphia to New York, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Charleston, with steamer service to Havana from the latter. 3) A MEETING OF THE MERCHANTS AND CITIZENS GENERALLY OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA...TO CELEBRATE THE ARRIVAL OF THE STEAMER "CITY OF GLASGOW," THE FIRST OF THE NEW LINE OF STEAMSHIPS ESTABLISHED TO PLY BETWEEN THIS PORT AND LIVERPOOL [caption title]. [Philadelphia]: Mason & Maas, [n.d., but November 1850]. Broadside, on a single folded sheet, docketed on verso, 10 x 7 3/4 inches. A small broadside notice in which the "merchants and citizens" of Philadelphia anticipate the arrival of the new CITY OF GLASGOW steamship after its maiden voyage from Liverpool, which occurred the next month. Below the announcement are four columns listing over 150 notable Philadelphia figures or businesses, headed by the mayor and other officials. This example of the notice was posted to Hon. William D. Lewis, collector of the port; his is the second name listed after the mayor's. 4) [THREE PARTIALLY-PRINTED RECEIPTS FOR RICHARDSON BROTHERS FREIGHT DUTIES IN 1852]. All three receipts made out to John Pennington and signed by Thomas Richardson during his time in Philadelphia. The first for the "STEAM SHIP CITY OF GLASGOW" is dated January 7, 1852; the second, for the "STEAM SHIP CITY OF PITTSBURGH" is dated April 20, 1852; the last, dated July 12, 1852 pertains to the "STEAM SHIP CITY OF MANCHESTER." 5) PROPELLER STEAMSHIP "CITY OF GLASGOW," OF THE LIVERPOOL AND PHILADELPHIA LINE, HEADING DOWN THE DELAWARE [caption title]. [Boston]: F. Gleason, [n.d.]. Handcolored engraving, 6 x 10 3/4 inches. Toned, trimmed. Good. Matted. Removed from an undated issue of GLEASON'S PICTORIAL DRAWING ROOM COMPANION. A handsome engraving showing the famous Philadelphia steamship that brought thousands of European emigrants to new lives in America, then disappeared in the North Atlantic in 1854. A unique collection of material relating to European emigration to the United States in the early 1850s, with a manuscript manifest containing vital information on over 300 American immigrants. The collection informs both the human side and the business side of immigration, providing a deep picture of the complexities involved with leaving a homeland for better opportunities in the New World. (Inventory #: WRCAM55343)