|This one we can be certain about! The steamboat in the background is the Oleander, which
Howard Taft down the Mississippi to New Orleans. The President and his fleet (other boats carried 24 governors and
about 200 congressmen and senators) left St. Louis on October 25, 1909 and were joined along the way by boats from
various river states carrying delegates to the great Waterways Convention, sponsored by the Lakes-to-the-Gulf Deep
Waterways Association in New Orleans from October 30 to November 2. Some 50,000 to 100,000 people were
expected to attend. The steamboat carrying the Missouri delegation is shown in the foreground.