Nineteenth Century Ice Cutting, Part 1

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“Ice harvesting was a boom business in the northeast U.S. during the mid-1800s.”

~ Farm Collector.com

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Victorian Winters and Ice

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Kristin Holt | Nineteenth Century Ice Cutting, Part 1. Cold weather brings ice cutting on the Hudson River. From The Baltimore Sun of Baltimore, Maryland, February 20, 1858.

Cold weather brings ice cutting on the Hudson River. From The Baltimore Sun of Baltimore, Maryland, February 20, 1858.

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Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 14, 1870.

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Putting up ice in Kansas City. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch of St. Louis, Missouri on Dec 20, 1879.

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Victorian Ice Trade around New York City

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The following image montage, published in Harper’s Weekly in August of 1884, illustrates the ice trade in and around New York City. Plenty of nineteenth-century Americans enjoyed an ice supply. Some must’ve wondered about the cutting process, especially those who lived in hotter regions (without a hard freeze!). After all, ice merchants managed a serious trade warm and hot months.

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Kristin Holt | Nineteenth Century Ice Cutting, Part 1. The ice trade around New York City; from top: ice houses on the Hudson River; ice barges being towed to New York; barges being unloaded; ocean steamship being supplied; ice being weighed; small customers being sold ice; the "uptown trade" to wealthier customers; an ice cellar being filled; by F. Ray, Harper's Weekly, 30 August 1884

The ice trade around New York City; from top: ice houses on the Hudson River; ice barges being towed to New York; barges being unloaded; ocean steamship being supplied; ice being weighed; small customers being sold ice; the “uptown trade” to wealthier customers; an ice cellar being filled; by F. Ray, Harper’s Weekly, 30 August 1884. [Image: Public Domain via Wikipedia]

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WHO OWNS ALL THAT ICE?

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Kristin Holt | Victorian Era Ice Cutting, Part 1. Humorous Illustration: In For It. Trespasser has fallen through the ice. Image appeared in a Victorian-era book titled XXXX

Humorous Illustration: In For It. Trespasser has fallen through the ice. From Four Hundred Humorous Illustrations by John Leech (29 August 1817 – 29 October 1864 in London), published in London (186-?) by Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co, and Glasgow: Thomas D. Morison.

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Victorian Patent: Raise Ice From River

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Kristin Holt | Nineteenth Century Ice Cutting, Part 1. United States Patent No. 2,381. Machine for Raising Ice awarded to NJ Wyeth. Patented Dec 10, 1841/

Patent No. 2,381: new and useful improvements for machine that raises blocks of ice from river when frozen, awarded to NJ Wyeth of Cambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts. Patented issued Dec 10, 1841. [Source]

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…I, NATHANIEL J. IVYETH, of Cambridge, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Machinery for Raising Blocks of Ice from the Lake when Frozen or Formed and Depositing the Same on Railways and in Railway-Cars…

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…In the drawings are two runners, which, when the sled is used in connection with my apparatus, which raises the blocks of ice from the water and deposits them on a sled on which they are removed to the storing houses or elsewhere, or, that by which blocks of ice are raised and deposited on railways and in railway cars…

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[Source]

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Interested in books (fiction and nonfiction) about ice-cutting in the 19th century?

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Used Paperbacks, starting at 1¢ (plus shipping)

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