[11] The variants including a woman with an alligator purse urging the baby's mother to vote have been seen as a reference to Susan B. Anthony, an American suffragette and wife,[12] and may be responsible for the steamboat owner's most common name today.
[15] Even 21st-century versions, however, typically preserve long-outdated references to the dangerousness of 19th-century steamers and to the need for a switchboard operator to manually connect a telephone call.
The earliest recorded version—about a girl named Mary—appears among the vaudeville jokes collected by Ed Lowry during his career in the 1910s, '20s, and '30s,[2] although versions about Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat[16][self-published source]) and Lulu (the star of "Bang Bang Lulu") may record older traditions.
The Lulu tradition—including "Miss Lucy had a baby"—already record enjambed double entendres during the World Wars, but the first version of this song known to have done so—versions about Fulton and a girl named Helen—date to the 1950s.
[19] An adaptation—"Miss Lucy had some leeches"—has been recorded by Emilie Autumn[20] and another—"Mrs. Landers was a health nut"—featured in the South Park episode "Something You Can Do with Your Finger".