{"product_id":"the-steamboat-bertrand-and-missouri-ronald-r-switzer-9780806151939","title":"The Steamboat Bertrand and Missouri River Commerce","description":"On April 1, 1865, the steamboat \u003ci\u003eBertrand, \u003c\/i\u003e a sternwheeler bound from St. Louis to Fort Benton in Montana Territory, hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank twenty miles north of Omaha. The crew removed only a few items before the boat was silted over. For more than a century thereafter, the \u003ci\u003eBertrand\u003c\/i\u003e remained buried until it was discovered by treasure hunters, its cargo largely intact. This book categorizes some 300,000 artifacts recovered from the \u003ci\u003eBertrand\u003c\/i\u003e in 1968, and also describes the invention, manufacture, marketing, distribution, and sale of these products and traces their route to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe ship and its contents are a time capsule of mid-nineteenth-century America, rich with information about the history of industry, technology, and commerce in the Trans-Missouri West. In addition to enumerating the items the boat was transporting to Montana, and offering a photographic sample of the merchandise, Switzer places the \u003ci\u003eBertrand\u003c\/i\u003e itself in historical context, examining its intended use and the technology of light-draft steam-driven river craft. His account of steamboat commerce provides multiple insights into the industrial revolution in the East, the nature and importance of Missouri River commerce in the mid-1800s, and the decline in this trade after the Civil War. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSwitzer also introduces the people associated with the \u003ci\u003eBertrand.\u003c\/i\u003e He has unearthed biographical details illuminating the private and social lives of the officers, crew members, and passengers, as well as the consignees to whom the cargo was being shipped. He offers insight into not only the passengers' reasons for traveling to the frontier mining camps of Montana Territory, but also the careers of some of the entrepreneurs and political movers and shakers of the Upper Missouri in the 1860s. This unique reference for historians of commerce in the American West will also fascinate anyone interested in the technology and history of riverine transport.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ronald R. Switzer\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0806151935\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780806151939\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Oklahoma Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/31\/2015\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 376\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.90d","brand":"Ronald R. Switzer","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46401254392063,"sku":"9780806151939","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_8d96796c-68fa-4db1-a526-58a73c0e9493.jpg?v=1733887180","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-steamboat-bertrand-and-missouri-ronald-r-switzer-9780806151939","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}