"This lurid lithograph, by Nathaniel Currier, popularized in the United States one of the worst steamboat accidents ever to occur here. The Lexington, proudly built by Commodore Vanderbilt in 1835, left New York on her Stonington, Connecticut, run on the sub-zero afternoon of January 13, 1840. Off Eaton's Neck, Long Island, she caught fire and went up like tinder, apparently because she was burning coal in furnaces built for wood. Only four of her estimated 100 passengers and forty crew members survived, clinging to bits of debris or cotton bales from the cargo. All four lifeboats swamped as they were launched. A nearby sloop gave no assistance because the captain, as he reported later, 'thought the steamer had her boats and did not want to lose his tide over the bar.' Considered the fastest Long Island Sound steamboat of her day, the Lexington once ran from Providence to New York in 12 hours, 14 minutes."

DR. FRANK WILSON

Card #9. Description on back. Measures apx 5-3/4 x 3-1/2 inches.

Gently bumped corners and only slight edge wear. Shallow vertical crease at center. Notch at center of bottom edge.