Artwork / 2025 / First Steamboat for Passengers and Freight

This person-sized sculpture is part of 52 Weeks of Firsts, a public art project put together by Mural Arts Philadelphia, the National Constitution Center, and Historic Philadelphia. It’s on display throughout the city in 2026! First Steamboat for Passengers and Freight will be featured at a festival on May 30^th but it’s on display at the Independence Seaport Museum all year.

This piece depicts the schematic for John Fitch’s 1790 steamboat, a vessel that carried both passengers and freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. On the side of the sculpture, the steamboat is on the river, with other ships of that era in the background with their sails up, and there’s a mallard duckling in the foreground, demonstrating the unusual duck-paddling design of Fitch’s 1790 steamboat. On the back of the sculpture, Fitch is thinking about his engine, and, on the final side, there’s a lovely Delaware River view.

This is one of three artworks I created for 52 Weeks of Firsts: check out First Continental Congress and First Zoo.

You can see some of the making of First Steamboat for Passengers and Freight.