Plate

PeriodCirca 1920-1930

Place MadeU.S.A.

MediumGlazed earthenware

Dimensions10.63 in. (27 cm)

ClassificationsEarthenware

Credit LineGift of George Stewart Hoagland, 1998

Object number1998.4.1

DescriptionA set of six dinner plates used on the Sandy Hook steamer ferry during the early 20th century. Of thick white bodied ceramic, each plate has an identical design in overall tones of blue, white, and cream. The central motif depicts a map of New Jersey, Manhattan, Staten Island, and Long Island. A large mariner's compass motif is at left, with radii. Small line images are scattered over the map, including a log cabin, wigwams, seventeenth-century full-masted sailing ship, stockade fort, and a Native American in a canoe. The large panel at right "New York Harbor 1650" with drapery swags and dolphins above. At top center of plate rim, plaque "Sandy Hook/New Jersey Central." Flying seagulls alternate with images of eight steamers, including the Kill Von Kull, Long Branch, Jesse Hoyt, Empire State, St. Johns, Asbury Park, Monmouth, and the Sandy Hook. Above images are the names of coastal towns and cities of upper Monmouth, including Atlantic Highlands, Keansburg, Keyport, Sea Bright, Long Branch, Elberon, Allenhurst, Asbury Park, Belmar, Spring Lake, and Point Pleasant. Each name is separated by a small anchor motif.
NotesThese plates were sold as souvenirs, costing one dollar, by the New Jersey Central Railroad to commemorate eight of the Central's steamers. The "Asbury Park," built in 1903 in Philadelphia, made the Atlantic Highlands to New York run between 1903 and 1912. The "Empire State," built in 1848 in New York, NY, weighed 1598 tons and made the Horseshoe Cove to NY run during the 1870s. The "Jesse Hoyt," built in 1862 in Keyport, measured 239 feet and made the Port Monmouth to NY run between 1863 and 1869, the Horseshoe Cove and Sandy Hook to NY run between 1870 and 1879, and the Atlantic Highlands to NY run in the 1890s. The "Kill Von [Van] Kull was built in 1858 in New York, measured 252 feet, and made the Horseshoe Cove and Sandy Hook to NY run in 1879, then the Atlantic HIghlands to NY run in 1882. The "Long Branch," built in 1866 in New York, measured 249 feet and made the Horseshoe Cove and Sandy Hook to New York run between 1870 and 1874. The "Monmouth," built in Philadelphia in 1888, was 260 feet in length and made the Horseshoe Cove and Sandy Hook to NY runs in 1889, then the Atlantic Highlands to NY run between 1884 and 1941. The "Sandy Hook," built in 1889 in Wilmington, Delaware, measured 260 feet in length and made the Atlantic Highlands to NY run between 1889 and 1941, and made runs between Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook to NY as a Troop Ferrier between 1942 and 1943. The "St. Johns," built in 1878 in Wilmington, Delaware, measured 250 feet and made the Horseshoe Cove and Sandy Hook to NY runs between 1879 and 1891, and the Atlantic Highlands to NY run from 1891 to 1903. (From George H. Moss, Steamboat to the Shore: A Pictorial History of the Steamboat Era in Monmouth County, NJ."

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