These eight whole-plate daguerreotypes, each measuring 6.5 x 8.5 inches 15.24 by 21.59 cm, form a panoramic view of a two-mile expanse of Cincinnati's riverfront. Taken by Charles Fontayne and William S. Porter in September 1848, these images are the earliest known photographs of the city's waterfront and the first to depict a western rivers steamboat. Cincinnati's rapid growth in the early 1800s was directly related to increasing river traffic. By the mid nineteenth century, the Queen City was the country's sixth-largest city and its largest inland port. In the panorama, there are more than sixty steamboats, twenty of which are identified by name, emphasizing the tremendous impact of the river on Cincinnati's economy.

Viewing the panorama as a whole, the Public Landing lies on the extreme left (plates 1 and 2). The foot of Walnut Street appears above the steamer Wave, and directly over the flagstaff of the steamer Embassy is the office where composer Stephen Collins Foster worked as a steamboat clerk. Further east and silhouetted against the sky are the twin towers of Christ Church (plate 3). To the left and just below them are the onion-domed tower and battlements of the Botanico Medical College, formerly Frances Trollope's Bazaar. Directly opposite the camera's position is tree-lined Lawrence Street (plate 4). At the top of this street is the home of Jacob Strader, steamboat owner, banker, and president of the Little Miami Railroad. Another imposing structure easy to identify is St. Philomena's Church (plate 5). On top of the high hill, called Mt. Adams, the Observatory stands out against the sky (plate 6). Moving further east, the long, low, white building is the Passenger Depot of the Little Miami Railroad (plate 7), an important landmark in a year when railroad service was first opened across the state from Cincinnati to Sandusky. The village of Fulton, whose primary industry was steamboat construction, appears upstream on the extreme right (plate 8).