Hudson River Day Line Collection (1963.01)

The Hudson River Day Line began operations in the mid-1800s under the direction of Alfred Van Santvoord who had followed his father into the steamboat business. It operated for nearly 100 years until the late 1940s when the shift to travel by car post-World War II led to a decline in the use of steamboats. The Hudson River Day Line Collection contains information regarding this service, including operational records, maintenance and purchase records for individual ships, balance sheets and annual reports and blueprints. Steamship logs are contained in over 30 binders and capture information about the routes taken by company steamships during the period of 1916-1948 along the Hudson River. Ephemera includes the nearly 40 years of promotional materials printed by the company beginning in the late 1800s, as well as both personal and business correspondence from the 19th century.