8:56 AM



Welcome Back to my Blog! Yesterday was Thanksgiving and today is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year. 


Above is a wood cut of the Lyon, Shorb & Co, Sligo & Tyrone Iron Store in St Louis. They were a Pittsburgh firm and thanks to Google Books, they downloaded the book, Allegheny County's Hundred Years and I learned they began mining in 1825.


I've read that this iron was considered superior to any and I always wondered if Steamboat Arabia's stacks were manufactured out of Sligo Iron. (I guess I will leave that up to scientists to test the alloy).



Allegheny county's hundred years

 By George Henry Thurston (click to enlarge the text)








Early this morning, I purchased a copy of the Edwards Great West and Her Commerical Metroplis, Embracing a General View of the West on Ebay as a "Buy it now".




The first time I held a copy was in the Reading Room of the Library of Congress and I never thought I could add such a rare book in my library. It's right up there with my St Louis Sketch Book 1858. I couldn't get over how it threw me back in time to 1850s St Louis. 




Look at this book online on Google Books - thanks Virginia University! Download a copy!




This book has been reprinted and a copy can be purchased on Amazon books for under $40 but, I need the rare copy to get quality wood cuts to be scanned for my book. 


The wood cuts were amazing and so let me share a few that were posted on Ebay.








Although out of focus, these are the St Louis Mayors with the present Mayor on lower right, Oliver Filley, owner of the tin works. The shack in the middle shows the humble home of the Chouteau family before the city was transformed into a the Metropolitan City- thanks to the steamboat industry.