IMPORTANT TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD ENGRAVED COMMEMORATIVE LANTERN GLOBE, colorless, compressed globular form with exquisite full-round scenic engraving featuring "CENTRAL / R. ROAD LINE / N.Y & SAN / FRANCISCO" within a wreath flanked by the steamboats Black Hawk and Red Jacket, and an early steam locomotive pulling a tender and three passenger cars with "SAN FRANCISCO" vertically between trees. Mounted in an incomplete brass frame. Reserve. Circa 1863-1869. Globe 4 1/4" H including rims, roughly 2 3/4" D rims.



Provenance: Property of a New Jersey collector.
Catalogue Note: It is likely that this globe was produced to promote or celebrate the building/completion of the Transcontinental Railroad which began in 1863 and was completed in 1869. The association of the two named steamships to the event has not yet been established. It is possible that the Black Hawk is the ship purchased by the Union Navy in 1862 which served as the flagship for Rear Admirals David Dixon Porter and Samuel Phillips Lee, commanders of the Mississippi Squadron during the Civil War. Its service included the siege of Vicksburg and the Red River Expedition. The ship accidentally burned and sank near Cairo, Illinois in 1865.

Globe undamaged.