Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Horn |
Common Name |
Boat horn |
Catalog Number |
1990.15.8 |
Date |
ca. 1885 |
Material(s) |
Tinplate |
Dimensions |
H-39.5 W-4 D-4 inches |
Description |
This is a tinplate boatman's horn with a wide flare at its widest end. |
Notes |
Family tradition held that this horn was used by Captain Freese, of Louisa in Lawrence County, on a steamboat which plied the Big Sandy during the latter 1880s. Freese gave the horn to Dr. F.A. Millard, the donor's father. While the dates suggest that Dr. Millard recieved the horn from Capt. Frank Freese, skipper of Big Sandy packet steamboats the Fannie Freese, Sallie Freese, and Fleetwing, the horn seems to be of an older type. In deed, steamboats would in all likelihood be outfitted with a steam whistle. It seems unlikely that Capt. Frank Freeze used such a horn during his career in 1880s. Perhaps it was a backup horn. It does bare resemblence to signal horns of an earlier period--though longer. There are references to flat-boatman's horn or simply "boatman's horn" in literature of the 1820s. See "The Boatman's Horn" By Gen. William O Butler published in the Western Review of Lexington in 1821. So it seems possible that the horn was either quite a bit earlier than 1880s or that it was used in the flat-boat trade. |
Collection |
Elizabeth Ann Millard Moore Collection |
People |
Freese, Captain |
Subjects |
Steamboats Horns flatboats navigation Big Sandy River |
Physical Holder |
Kentucky Historical Society - KHS |