Title	"Cotton Blossom"
Subject	Steamboats; Showboats; Riverboats; "Grace Devers"; Towboats; Tugboats; Levees; Otto Hitner
Description	The "Cotton Blossom" began life in 1896 as a raft for a lumber company working out of St. Paul. She handled the large excursion barge named "Mississippi" at one time, was renamed "The Princess" and was then sold to the Barrett Line for use as a storeboat at Cairo. Otto Hitner bought it and built it into a showboat and named it "Cotton Blossom". It had the largest hull ever used as a showboat and it had no pilot house. Hitner operated it until 1929. We think the "Grace Devers" is acting as tow in this picture. The "Cotton Blossom" is seen here at the Madison Levee. An interesting sidelight to the "Cotton Blossom" appeared in the June 5, 1928 Madison Courier. "Suits alleging libel will be instituted by the owner of the showboat Cotton Blossom, now anchored in the Paducah port, against Edna Ferber, author of the novel "Showboat", Doubleday Page Company, publishers; Flo Ziegfeld, staging "Show Boat" in New York; and the Universal Film Company, unless satisfactory settlement can be made immediately, it was revealed in a telegram sent to these persons by Attorney Charles C. Grassham, of Paducah, Ky., employed as counsel by D. Otto Hitner, owner of the showboat. Attorney Grassham said that suit for $250,000 damages by reason of alleged libelous material in the novel and stage offering will be instituted in New York unless adjustment is reached in each case. Mr. Hitner claims that he and members of his family have been libeled and that his business has been ruined. The novel "Show Boat" used the name of "Cotton Blossom" and material which he charges is libel."
Creator	Harry Lemen, photographer
Contributors	Madison-Jefferson County Public Library; Jefferson County Historical Society
Date	Photograph taken circa 1927
Type	Photograph
Format	Original: tif, scanned at 1200dpi with a MicroTek ScanMaker 9800XL. Online: jpg, saved at 72dpi.; scanned image of 3x5 photograph
Identifier	"MJCPLriver5058-cottonblossom"
Source	Way's Packet Directory Harry Lemen Collection of the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library
Rights	Permission to reproduce this image for other than personal use must be requested from the Director of the Madison-Jefferson County Public Library. Please contact at 420 W. Main St., Madison, IN 47250 (812) 265-2744.