This month’s cover features detail from the print “Champions of the Mississippi ‘A Race for the Buckhorns.’” Designed by Frances Flora Bond Palmer, the print was produced in 1866 by Currier and Ives. The print depicts the dramatic steamboat race between the “Queen of the West” and the “Morning Star,” cheered on by spectators around bonfires, in hopes of claiming the prize: the buckthorns (a stag’s antlers), which the winner is entitled to carry between the ship’s stacks for a year.

The print comes from the Preston Player Art Collection in Knox College’s Special Collections and Archives, containing more than 150 books, maps, and prints relating to the Mississippi River, including more than 30 Currier and Ives prints. More information on Knox College Special Collections and archives is available at www.knox.edu/library/special-collections-and-archives.