Detail from Plate 85, possibly a boat wagon

Detail from Plate 85, possibly a boat wagon

I recently read Captain Watson’s Travels in America: The Sketchbook and Diary of Joshua Rowley Watson, 1771-1818 by Kathleen A. Foster (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8122-3384-0. This is a delightful book the focuses on some sketchbooks of watercolors done by a British naval captain while visiting the United States. Plate 85 in this book shows a watercolor entitled “Looking down the Susquehannah fm Wrightsville ferry 25th April 1817”. On the right side, next to an inn, is a wagon which could be a boat wagon. Then again, it could have some other purpose.