Ferry boats on Mississippi River, Davenport, IA, 1917

About this postcard

The view shows a moonlit Mississippi River with ferry boats under steam between Davenport, Iowa, and Rock Island, Illinois. Lights along the shore reflect in the water, and the river crossing is the center of the scene. Ferries were a long-standing part of Mississippi River traffic, carrying people and goods between the Iowa and Illinois banks alongside the bridges that crossed the river by the early twentieth century. A Moline sender's note to a friend in Galesburg adds a personal trace of the river towns: she and her companions are "O.K. & like it up here just fine."