New Orleans Mule Team on the Levee, c. 1903 by Detroit Publishing Co.

New Orleans Mule Team on the Levee, c. 1903 by Detroit Publishing Co. captures a team of mules hauling a wagonload of bales along the Mississippi River levee in New Orleans, with sandbags shoring the embankment, a steamship at left, and a boxcar lettered A & V at right. The photograph was issued by the Detroit Publishing Company, credited on the image as the Detroit Photographic Co., the firm’s earlier name, and documents the labor and logistics of the American South’s river-borne trade at the turn of the twentieth century.

Artist: Detroit Publishing Co. (credited as Detroit Photographic Co.). Date: c. 1903.

New Orleans Mule Team on the Levee, c. 1903. Historic Southern Industry Photography Canvas Print.