Signature Collections

Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) Canal in Washington County

Collage of Chesapeake and Ohio Canal - Washington County, Maryland

About: Canal Boats

Other topics within this collection:

A brief history of the C&O Canal

Canal workers from 1850-1920 census

Possible canal workers' cemetery

Canal families at work

Boatmen and Lockkeepers

Canal Company operations

Business along the canal

Floods and canal repairs

Slaves and the canal

Canal during the Civil War

Canal artifacts

Resources consulted

The canal in the newspapers

National Park Service (NPS) resources

Canal terminology

Saving the Canal

Displaying 1 - 30 of 30

recreational boat in canal circa 1920s

Above Big Slackwater

Five boats are moored in a boat basin near Two Locks

After the Canal closed

Canal in river approaching a lock, buildings on left side

Approaching the lock

Photo of canal boat in river; text written "one mile below Antietam", 1904

Below Antietam

House boat in canal, windows with curtains and cover on front; 2 men at back of boat

Big Slackwater

Canal Towage Company boat number 85 left in water after flood damage

Boat 85, after 1924

Canal boat travel down river; man and boat steering boat

Boat by Four Locks

Scan of written letter regarding building a Canal boat, 1846

Boat specifications, 1846 (Indenture)

Scan of Canal Boat Ledger, 1878

Canal boat registers 1873, 1878

Picture of two empty, or “light”, boats coming up the canal

Canal boats

Canal boat from the era of the Canal Company, ? circa 1905

Canal Company boat, 1905

crowd of people stand on the deck of the Canal Towage boat 67, tied up along the canal

Canal Towage 67

Government coal boats, circa unknown

Government coal boat

Canal boat in river; 2 horses on road near river, circa 1920

Hebb's boat #6 - Big Slackwater

House boat, near Shepherdstown circa 1916

House boat near Shepherdstown

News article about canal from Herald of Freedom, 1850; "Large Loads."

Large loads, 1850

Handwritten letter to Alexandria, Feb 11, 1852

Letter (2) to S.P. Grove re boat

Handwritten letter to Alexandria, Feby 6, 1852

Letter to S. P. Grove re canal boats

light (empty) boat heading back up the canal

Light canal boat

Training heading north, canal boat heading south pass each other

Millers Bend above Weverton

laden canal boat makes its way downstream, family on boat

Near 2 Locks

Parked passenger boat in river; 2 men at front of the boat

Passenger boat

A paymaster's boat rises in a lock, 2 men with ropes tying the boat up

Paymaster boat

Decayed canal boat marooned when the canal closed.

Remains of boat #58, 1958

News article in Weekly Casket, 1849 "For the Casket, December 1, 1849."

Steamboat at Williamsport, 1849

Steam boat near wharf at Williamsport, circa late 1800s

Steamboat in Williamsport

Canal boat in river in Western Maryland; photo taken by WCFL bookmobile, circa 1911-1923

The Canal and the bookmobile

loaded canal boat on its way to Georgetown to unload its cargo of coal

Thompson 70

Article in Morning Herald, 1921 - "U.S. CANAL BOATS ARE NOW MOVING"

U S canal boats, 1921 (Coal from Cumberland)

Article in Herald of Freedom and Torch Light, 1851 - "Synod Meeting."

Williamsport accessible by pack boat, 1851