When I was a kid growing up, my grandparents built a summer cottage beside a lake in upstate New York. We all spent hours and hours there and some of my best memories center around the lake. I was allowed to take the rowboat out by myself and I used to explore and fish and read and daydream….so for me, rowboats are part of summer!

I present some of my favorite Victorian trade (advertising) cards today for your July enjoyment.

I didn’t sail (although my grandfather equipped the boat with a removable mast and sewed a sail) but I liked this quote:

Sailing a boat calls for quick action, a blending of feeling with the wind and water as well as with the very heart and soul of the boat itself. Sailing teaches alertness and courage, and gives in return a joyousness and peace that but few sports afford. George Matthew Adams

Being on a boat that’s moving through the water, it’s so clear. Everything falls into place in terms of what’s important and what’s not. James Taylor

On my tombstone, I want written: ‘He never did ‘Love Boat!’ Orson Welles

I did a ‘Love Boat!’ And based on my trip on the ‘Love Boat,’ I said, ‘I’d just as soon not do ‘Fantasy Island.’ Tom Hanks

Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. Wallace Stevens (Or rowing across it. VS)

It was beautiful. It was perfectly still when we got there in the morning. The fog was lifting off the water. It was just magical. Jennifer Granholm