Plate

This blue and white transfer-printed earthenware plate made by the Staffordshire firm of Enoch Wood & Sons features a view of the Marine Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky. Located on the Ohio River in north central Kentucky, Louisville became an important nineteenth-century commercial center and river port upon completion of a canal circumventing the Falls of Ohio to make river travel safer. The Marine Hospital was built by the government in 1820 at Brook and Chestnut Streets on the site occupied in this century by the Louisville General Hospital. It was built to care for sailors who became injured or sick while working on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. With the perfection of steam navigation, commerce on the rivers had increased dramatically and steamboat wrecks had become common occurences due to natural hazards and races among riverboat captains. Wood & Sons included the view in its series of approximately twenty-nine predominantly nautical American and foreign views with irregular grotto-shaped shell borders produced for the American market. The American Wing's collection contains additional pieces by Wood & Sons. Refer to the Dictionary for a definition of ther term "transfer printing" and for information about Wood & Sons.