Trade card. Copyright, Bufford, Boston, Massachusetts. Circa 1890s.

Price:  $4.00

Nellie Lee’s Card

An illustration of a paddle wheel steamer passing a bell buoy in Boston Harbor:  This trade card was never printed with any particular company information. It’s just a sample card that had come into the possession, as we see from the reverse, of young Nellie Lee.

On the subject of buoys, there were a number of different types:  gas, whistling, can, nun, ice, spar and bell – this is info from a 4-column spread in The Boston Globe in 1889. The article’s author, John Collier, had gone out on Verbena, one of the steamers used for buoy supply and inspection, and had interviewed her captain, Charles I. Gibbs. Here are just a few excerpts, if you have time:

Buoys are like boys….

Below, Captain Gibbs, explaining some of the different buoys, the maintenance and some of the problems encountered:

Illustrations of an old bell buoy and an automatic whistler:

Sources:  Collier, John. “On the Verbena…Buoys and Beacons Visited by a Reporter….” The Boston Globe, June 9, 1889. Sunday, p. 17. (Newspapers.com).

Fog bell. n.d. wikipedia.org. (accessed September 22, 2024.)