| Fulton -- Whose anniversary we are met to
celebrate. He was stone deaf, but in other respects a perfect gentleman. - undated manuscript page auctioned on ebay in March 2008 |
 Manuscript page with quote on Robert Fulton that appeared on an ebay auction in March 2008 |
I am sure that but for his genious and energy steam navigation would have remained
in the egg centuries longer than it did. He made the vacant oceans and the idle
rivers useful after the unprejudiced had been wondering for a hundred million
years what they were for. He found these properties a liability; he left them
an asset. It is the peculiar honor and privilege of our commercializing age
to estimate this majestic service at its splendid and rightful value. The monument
is deserved, and it will be built.
- letter written to membership committee of the Robert Fulton Memorial Association,
quoted in The New York Times,
Feb. 18, 1906
Still movie photo
from Little Old New York (1940)
featuring the 1807 maiden voyage of Fulton's first steamboat known as Clermont.
From the Dave Thomson collection.
Quotations | Newspaper Articles | Special Features | Links | Search