These vin­tage clip­per cards were adver­tise­ments for ship­ping voy­ages, usu­al­ly from a port on the east coast (New York, Boston) to the west coast (San Fran­cis­co). They were dis­trib­uted by ship dis­patch­ers in the 1800s.

Full set on Flickr.

Via Coudal.