Duluth Waterfront with Steamships, P. B. Gaylord

Two steamships span the foreground, their pale hulls, dark funnels, tall masts and arched deck supports standing against the Duluth waterfront. Buildings crowd the shoreline, with a church steeple among the roofs and scattered houses extending uphill toward a wooded ridge.

The printed caption reads “View in the City of Duluth.” Both side margins carry the series heading “Scenery at the Head of Lake Superior.” and the imprint “P. B. Gaylord, Photographer, Duluth, Minn.” These identify the photographer and location and place the card within Gaylord’s Lake Superior series. The individual vessels and buildings are not securely identified, and no printed date is present.

The two photographs are mounted side by side on an orange card with rounded corners and a pink paper reverse. The reverse is unprinted and carries pencil annotations, including a name tentatively read as “E. R. Rice”; these do not establish a confirmed ownership history. No legible publisher’s view number or reverse catalogue is present.

A curved blue ink stroke crosses the upper-right sky of the right-hand photograph. A short split and diagonal crease affect the lower-left mount border, with localized losses to the pink backing paper. The waterfront detail remains clear, and the card is otherwise sound.